Study Rates Aspirin as Therapy

Aspirin works as well as Coumadin, the oldest of stroke drugs, in helping patients avoid recurrent strokes, said a study aimed at settling a long-standing question among doctors.

Many doctors suspected that Coumadin was more effective but that aspirin was safer. This study challenges both views, said Dr. J. P. Mohr, a neurologist at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York who led the research.

Aspirin and Coumadin thin blood, warding off clots that can block blood vessels.

The study, published in today’s New England Journal of Medicine, looked at patients who had already suffered the most common kinds of strokes--when a clot from outside the heart obstructs the flow of oxygen-carrying blood to the brain.

Earlier research, however, shows that Coumadin is more effective than aspirin in preventing additional strokes in patients whose first stroke stemmed from clots that formed inside the heart.

In the latest study, researchers tested the two drugs on 2,206 patients for two years at 48 hospitals around the country.

Aspirin might cost $10 for a year’s worth of treatment. Coumadin and the necessary blood tests can together cost several hundred dollars.