Over 10% of cardiology practice patients inappropriately take aspirin

the Oncology Nurse Advisor take:

According to a new study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, researchers from Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Houston, Texas, have found that more than 10% of patients are inappropriately taking aspirin for primary prevention of cardiovascular disease.

For the study, researchers identified over 254,000 patients who were taking aspirin between 2008 and 2013 from the National Cardiovascular Disease Registry Practice Innovation and Clinical Experience (PINNACLE) registry. The researchers used the Framingham risk calculator to assess the 10-year risk of cardiovascular disease of the 68,808 evaluable patients.

The researchers defined inappropriate aspirin use for primary prevention as taking aspirin when a patient's 10-year risk was less than 6%; some guidelines say inappropriate use is less than a 10% risk. Results showed that 11.6% of patients taking aspirin for primary prevention had a 10-year risk of less than 6%.

In addition, when comparing inappropriate aspirin use among different cardiology practices, researchers found that inappropriate use ranged from 0% to 70% in different practices.

The findings suggest that the 10-year cardiovascular disease risk should be calculated for each patient, and the clinician should discuss the risk versus benefit of aspirin use with that patient.