“Aspirin could be as effective as more expensive drugs for heart failure patients with a normal heart rhythm, according to researchers.
Their study on more than 2,000 patients, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, said aspirin was as effective as the commonly prescribed drug warfarin. It said each drug had risks, but they had similar benefits overall.” (BBC News)
Read the full findings at http://www.nejm.org/doi/pdf/10.1056/NEJMe1202504
“The benefit of warfarin in reducing the rate of ischemic stroke was offset by an increase in the rate of major bleeding (1.78 events per 100 patient-years with warfarin vs. 0.87 events per 100 patient-years with aspirin, P<0.001; number needed to harm, 110), although there was no excess of intracerebral bleeding events (0.12 events per 100 patient-years with warfarin and 0.05 events per 100 patient-years with aspirin, P = 0.35).”