Aspirin, Cardiovascular Disease & Diabetes

Writing in a paper published online in Britsh Medical Journal, Dr Giogria De Berardis and colleagues conclude that "a clear benefit of aspirin in the primary prevention of major cardiovascular events in people with diabetes remains unproved."[1]

"It seems that not only in individuals with diabetes, but also in all other high-risk groups, the efficacy of aspirin for preventing the development of cardioivascular disease is lower than expected. It doesn't mean that aspirin is not effective, it means that the efficacy is lower than expected, and that means we need to select very carefully the patients who are more likely to benefit."

Nicolucci points to another issue that warrants further exploration: whether there are specific characteristics of diabetic that make aspirin less likely to function as expected.
"There's strong basic research evidence suggesting that diabetes can represent a particular situation associated with poor response to aspirin. "

De Berardis G, Sacco M, Strippoli GFM, et al. Aspirin for primary prevention of cardiovascular events in people with diabetes: Meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials. BMJ 2009; DOI:10.1136/bmj.b4531. Available at: http://www.theheart.org/article/viewDocument.do?document=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bmj.com.