BMJ  2005;331:161 (16 July), doi:10.1136/bmj.331.7509.161-a

Letter

Aspirin for everyone over 50?

Don't forget aspirin resistance

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR—None of the authors in the debate for and against the prescribing of aspirin for those over 50 mentions the growing notion of aspirin resistance.^{1 2} This term is used to describe not only an absence of the expected pharmacological effects of aspirin on platelets but also poorer than expected clinical outcomes. Thus, in biochemical aspirin resistance the in vitro activation of platelets is persistent, and in clinical aspirin resistance patients taking aspirin have recurrent vascular events.

Several studies have now shown that a substantial minority of patients may have either total or partial aspirin resistance.³ Although these studies may have methodological differences, they suggest that between 5% and 55% of treated patients may have some degree of aspirin resistance. Recent data suggest that a substantial proportion of patients at a potentially greater risk of cardiovascular events than a normal population have aspirin resistance.⁴

Whether aspirin related side effects . . . [Full text of this article]

Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital NHS Trust, Norwich NR1 3SR ketan.dhatariya@nnuh.nhs.uk

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