TOPLINE
Aspirin improves survival for Covid-19 patients admitted to hospital, according to new peer reviewed research published in JAMA Network Open, adding to evidence that the widely used, inexpensive drug can be repurposed as a tool to fight Covid.
KEY FACTS
Patients who were given aspirin within one day of being hospitalized with moderate Covid-19 were nearly 14% less likely to die in hospital within 28 days than patients who did not, according to a study involving more than 112,000 patients in the U.S. between January 1, 2020, through September 10, 2021.
In absolute terms, the researchers found early aspirin use in hospitals cut the risk of death by 1.6%, meaning 63 patients would need to be treated with the drug to prevent one in-hospital death.
Rates of pulmonary embolism—a blood clot that blocks a blood vessel in the lungs—were also “significantly lower,” nearly 30%, in patients who received aspirin, the researchers found.
Patients over the age of 60 or with other medical conditions appeared to benefit most from early aspirin treatment in hospital, the study found.
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Though aspirin carries some risk common to blood thinning drugs, there were no significant differences in the rates of bleeding complications between patients who received aspiring and those who did not — but researchers said the risks should still be “carefully weighed before treatment.”
The researchers said a randomized control trial—the gold standard of clinical research—should be conducted to confirm their findings, which by design could not definitively establish a causal link between aspirin use and the reduction in hospital deaths.
KEY BACKGROUND
Aspirin is one of the most widely used drugs in medicine. It’s well-studied, widely available and cheap, commonly used to treat pain, fever, inflammation and to help prevent heart attacks and strokes. It also thins the blood by interfering with platelets, a type of blood cell involved in the clotting process. Even mild Covid infections have been associated with a wide range of clotting problems, prompting researchers to explore the potential of aspirin in treating the disease. The study is in line with other observational studies on the matter, which also found reductions in the number of patients dying in hospital or an increase in the number of patients discharged for those taking aspirin.
FURTHER READING
Even Mild COVID Can Increase the Risk of Heart Problems (Scientific American)
By Robert Hart, Forbes Staff
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