Aspirin For Treating Blocked Brain Arteries

A new report says that aspirin is more effective for treating ischemic stroke, or brain hemorrhage.

More than 560 patients suffering from ischemic attack or stroke caused by angiographically verified stenosis of a major artery were assigned to receive either aspirin or warfarin. Warfarin is the standard drug prescribed in these procedures.

In a following up process that took 1.8 yrs, warfarin treatment had an increased number of adverse events like myocardial infarction or sudden death, death from vascular causes, and death from nonvascular causes. When treated with aspirin the rate of incidence of all these events were lower than warfarin treatment.

The study called Warfarin–Aspirin Symptomatic Intracranial Disease (WASID) Trial was funded by National Institute of Neurological Disorders, US. Scientists are of the opinion that use of aspirin may be preferred over warfarin in cases of patients with intracranial arterial stenosis. However, others are of the opinion that the trial only brings out certain points and do not clarify all the points in deciding between aspirin and warfarin. In fact physicians should be careful of the and not use aspirin as a blanket treatment in all phases of the patients’ conditions, as there exists a 22% risk of ischemic stroke, brain hemorrhage, or death from vascular causes other than stroke as well.