Aspirin is especially appealing because it is the most widely available over-the-counter drug. Its cost, at just a cent per dose, is lower than other commonly used anticoagulant drugs such as rimadesivir, which can run into thousands of dollars for a typical course of treatment.
Aspirin can help prevent blood clots, which is why people who have had a heart attack are advised to take aspirin with their child several times a day.
“The reason we started looking at aspirin and covid is because in the spring we all realized that all of these patients have a lot of thrombotic complications, or a lot of blood clots that form in their bodies.” , George and Washington Washington School of Medicine Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine at Medicine and Health Sciences, told CNN.
“That’s why we thought antiplatelet agents or blood thinners, such as aspirin, might be helpful in Covid-19.”
The team looked at the records of 412 patients admitted to several U.S. hospitals between March and July 2020. About 24% of patients received aspirin within 24 hours of hospitalization or seven days before hospitalization. But, most, 76%, did not receive the drug. Researchers have found that aspirin use is associated with a 44% reduction in mechanical ventilation, a 43% reduction in ICU admissions, and a 47% reduction in hospital mortality.
Similar findings have been made in other studies. In one study, published in the PLoS One Journal, more than 30,000 U.S. Veterans were monitored and found that those who were already taking aspirin had a half the risk of dying who did not prescribe daily pills.
Chow warned that one of the limitations of his team’s new study is that it pays attention to medical records and does not randomly assign patients to take rand spirits or placebo.
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