Science / Medicine : Stroke Drug Edges Aspirin

An experimental drug narrowly outperforms aspirin in preventing strokes in high-risk patients, New York University researchers reported last week in the New England Journal of Medicine. The drug, ticlopidine, “was found to be somewhat more effective than aspirin in reducing the risk of death” in patients with early warning signs of stroke, the researchers said.

Significantly, the drug was found to benefit women as well as men. Earlier research had documented aspirin’s ability to prevent strokes in men but was inconclusive in women. The study, led by Dr. William K. Hass, looked at more than 3,000 patients with early warning signs of stroke over six years. Roughly half were given aspirin and half ticlopidine. In the group taking ticlopidine, there were 172 strokes and 306 deaths, compared to 212 strokes and 349 deaths in the group taking aspirin. Those taking ticlopidine experienced more side effects, however, including diarrhea, rash, elevated cholesterol levels and reduced white blood cell counts.

Although ticlopidine’s ability to prevent strokes is not clearly understood by scientists, aspirin works by thinning the blood, discouraging the formation of clots in arteries leading to the brain.