(Ivanhoe Newswire) – Patients who have unprovoked  venous thromboembolism, which is the presence of both deep vein thrombosis, a blood clot in the  artery of a leg, and pulmonary embolism, a blockage in the main artery of a lung, have a high risk of recurrence after anticlotting medications are discontinued.

 

A new study looked at whether aspirin would be effective in preventing this recurrence. The answer was no.

 

However, the study did find that aspirin helped reduce the rate of major vascular event such as heart attack, stroke, myocardial infarction, major bleeding and death. These results substantiate earlier evidence of a therapeutic benefit of aspirin when it is given to patients after initial anticoagulant therapy for a first episode of unprovoked venous thromboembolism.

 

To conduct the study, researchers randomly assigned 100 mg of aspirin daily, or placebo for up to four years to 822 patients who had completed initial anticoagulant therapy after a first episode of unprovoked venous thromboembolism.

 

Source: New England Journal of Medicine

 

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