The study, just published in JAMA Internal Medicine, reveals a significant increase in adverse outcomes for people taking both aspirin and warfarin, a long-popular anticoagulant often prescribed for stroke prevention in patients with atrial fibrillation and venous thromboembolic (VTE) disease. Both groups of people need to avoid developing blood clots that could lead to stroke or pulmonary embolism.
"Nearly 2,500 patients who were prescribed warfarin were taking aspirin, without any clear reason, over a 7-year period," says senior author and a vascular cardiologist at the University of Michigan (U-M) Frankel Cardiovascular Center and an assistant professor of internal medicine at the U-M Medical School. "No doctors really own the prescribing of aspirin, so it's possible it got overlooked." Some patients could have been taking aspirin already when they began anticoagulation with…
