ASPIRIN: NEW HEALTH ALERT

Daily pills pose risk to elderly heart patients

ELDERLY people who take a daily aspirin to prevent heart attacks or strokes are 10 times more likely to suffer a fatal bleed than younger patients, a study claims.

Researchers at Oxford University warn over-75s – who have a history of the two conditions and regularly use the pills – should also be prescribed heartburn drugs to reduce stomach bleeding risks.

The most comprehensive study on the pills found the danger of taking the household painkiller, known as an antiplatelet, over a long time period was much higher than expected.

But medical experts stressed that every case should be dealt with individually after consultation with a patient’s GP.

The research, of more than 3,000 patients,

found that over a decade the risk of fatal bleeding of the gut or stomach for those 75 or older was 10 times that for under-65s.

The university’s Professor Peter Rothwell said: “We have known for some time aspirin increases the risk of bleeding for elderly patients.

“Previous studies have shown there is a clear benefit of short-term antiplatelet treatment following a heart attack or stroke.

“But our findings raise questions about the balance of risk and benefit of long-term daily aspirin use in people aged 75 or over if a proton-pump inhibitor [heartburn pill] is not co-prescribed.”

Last night the British Heart Foundation pointed out that the use of heartburn drugs mitigated the extra risk of bleeding from aspirins, adding that they only became an issue in older patients.

Prof Sir Nilesh Samani from the Foundation, which part-funded the research, hailed it as “an important step forward”.

Prof Helen Stokes-Lampard, chair of the Royal College of GPs, said: “We have known for some time that there are ri sks involved with aspirin’s long-term use – and this research shows it is particularly the case for our older patients.”

However Prof Tony Fox, from King’s College London, said it was important not to “over-interpret the size of the problem”.

And Dr Tim Chico, consultant cardiologist at the University of Sheffield, warned people not to stop taking aspirin if they had been prescribed it by a doctor after a stroke or heart attack.

The study followed 3,166 patients who had previously had a stroke or heart attack and were prescribed anti platelets. Half were at least 75 at the start of the research.

Researchers found that for patients over that age major stomach bleeding was at least as likely to be disabling or fatal as stroke without heartburn pills.

Up to six in 10 Britons aged 75 or over take aspirin to ward off a second heart attack or stroke, or as “health insurance” to protect against cardiovascular disease.

German expert Prof HansChristoph Diener said over-75s taking aspirin should be regularly re-evaluated.

The findings were published in medical journal The Lancet.