Aspirin benefit in International Stroke Trial not "clear cut," The Lancet says.
This article was originally published in The Tan Sheet
Executive Summary
ASPIRIN LINKED TO "SMALL" IMPROVEMENT IN PREVENTING RECURRENT STROKES and deaths due to acute ischemic stroke in the "International Stroke Trial" of nearly 20,000 patients in 36 countries published in the May 31 issue of The Lancet. "For aspirin, the IST suggests a small but worthwhile improvement at six months," the study says. "Taking the IST together with the comparably large Chinese Acute Stroke Trial, aspirin produces a small but real reduction of about 10 deaths or recurrent strokes per 1,000 during the first few weeks," the International Stroke Trial Collaborative Group reported.