The Nation - News from March 30, 1988

A two-year international study of more than 17,000 heart patients showed that aspirin and the clot-dissolving drug streptokinase, taken together after the onset of chest pains, reduce heart attack deaths. The research in 400 hospitals in 16 countries is billed as the largest heart attack treatment study ever. It was presented at the annual meeting in Atlanta of the American College of Cardiology. The study showed that a chewed aspirin tablet or administration of streptokinase improved the survival rate. The rate improved more when the two were taken together. Mortality among heart attack victims given the combination was 7.8% after five weeks, contrasted with 12.8% for patients given a placebo. Drs. Rory Collins and Peter Sleight and researcher Richard Peto, all of the University of Oxford, England, said the improvements were evident across the range of patients.