prcscct wrote: ↑Tue Aug 22, 2017 4:31 pm
...."Aspirin at daily doses
in excess of 300mg has a significant anti-platelet effect.".....
Is that correct or should it read less than 300mg? Above that < than 100mg is mentioned. Pete
It is correct and I apologise for any confusion caused. The anti-platelet effect is considered "significant" at doses above 300mg when compared in clinical trials - at that dose - with other products for that specific need, such as post-operative care. However, post hoc analyses of multiple, similar trials (a meta-analysis) revealed that patients suffered fewer cardiovascular events than expected in the general population with a similar risk profile, which was worthy of more study.
To test this finding, a lower dose (~75-100mg) was chosen to balance the known gastric side effects and trialled by a group of doctors (Swedish, if I remember correctly) on their "at risk" patients. Their pooled results from thousands of patients maintained a lower incidence of cardiovascular events overall with an acceptably small number of non-fatal, gastric bleeds. It was shown, therefore, that there is a dose-dependent relationship regarding aspirin's anti-platelet ("blood thinning") qualities whereby the more you take, the more profound it is. So if you are at low-to-moderate risk of experiencing a cardiovascular event and have a low risk of a gastrointestinal bleed, a low dose of aspirin is consider statistically better than nothing.
Medicine is littered with examples of such serendipitous discovery, from penicillin to sildenefil (Viagra). This is what empirical science is all about and there's probably a whole other thread about trials doctors can do on their patients vs. the regulations governing the Pharmaceutical industry.
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