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(Circulation. 2006;113:2572-2578.)
© 2006 American Heart Association, Inc.

Heart Failure

Aspirin Use and Outcomes in a Community-Based Cohort of 7352 Patients Discharged After First Hospitalization for Heart Failure

Finlay A. McAlister, MD, MSc; William A. Ghali, MD, MPH; Yanyan Gong, MSc; Jiming Fang, PhD; Paul W. Armstrong, MD; Jack V. Tu, MD, PhD

From the Division of General Internal Medicine (F.A.M.) and the Division of Cardiology (P.W.A.), University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada; the Division of General Internal Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada (W.A.G.); the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada (Y.G., J.F.); and the Division of General Internal Medicine, Sunnybrook and Women’s College Health Sciences Centre, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada (J.V.T.).

Correspondence to Dr F. McAlister, 2E3.24 WMC, University of Alberta Hospital, 8440 112 Street, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6G 2R7. E-mail- Finlay.McAlister{at}ualberta.ca

Received November 16, 2005; revision received March 23, 2006; accepted March 24, 2006.

Background— The safety of aspirin in heart failure (HF) has been called into question, particularly in those patients (1) without coronary disease, (2) with renal dysfunction, or (3) treated with low-dose angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors and high-dose aspirin.

Methods and Results— We examined prescription patterns and outcomes (all-cause mortality and/or HF readmission) in patients discharged from 103 Canadian hospitals between April 1999 and March 2001 after a first hospitalization for HF. Of 7352 patients with HF (mean age, 75 years; 44% without coronary disease and 29% with renal dysfunction), 2785 (38%) died or required HF readmission within the first year. Compared with nonusers, aspirin users were no more likely to die or require HF readmission (hazard ratio [HR], 1.02 [0.91 to 1.16]), even in patients without coronary disease (HR, 0.98 [0.78 to 1.22]) or patients with renal dysfunction (HR, 1.13 [0.94 to 1.36]). On the other hand, users of ACE inhibitors were less likely to die or require HF readmission (HR, 0.87 [0.79 to 0.96]), even if they were using aspirin (HR, 0.86 [0.77 to 0.95]). There were no dose-dependent interactions between aspirin and ACE inhibitors.

Conclusions— In this observational study, aspirin use was not associated with an increase in mortality rates or HF readmission rates, and aspirin did not attenuate the benefits of ACE inhibitors, even in patients without coronary disease, patients with renal dysfunction, or patients treated with high-dose aspirin and low-dose ACE inhibitors.

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