Stroke Rounds: Aspirin Timing Matters ... a Little

Aspirin for secondary prevention of stroke and heart disease might be better taken at night only from the standpoint of antiplatelet effects, not antihypertensive activity, a crossover trial showed. Morning platelet reactivity scores averaged 22 aspirin reactivity units (ARU) lower with bedtime dosing compared with morning dosing (P=0.001), Tobias N. Bonten, MD, of Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands, and colleagues found. 280,000 recurrent cardiovascular events occur in the U.S. every year, with a known excess of 40% during the morning hours," the group noted. "If aspirin intake at bedtime would reduce this morning peak by 20%, it would lead to an absolute reduction of 4,853 recurrent events each year in the U.S. alone. "So, switching to bedtime aspirin intake is a simple and possible effective intervention. Future studies should evaluate whether this indeed translates in a reduction of cardiovascular events." Advertisement B http://www.medpagetoday.com/Cardiology/Prevention/50100?xid=nl_mpt_DHE_2015-02-20&utm_content=&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=DailyHeadlines&utm_source=ST&eun=g721819d0r&userid=721819&email=amydugan2%40gmail.com&mu_id=5883165&utm_term=Daily