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A drug used for the treatment of heartburn allows heart patients
with ulcers to take aspirin to help prevent strokes and heart
attacks, according to a study in the New England Journal of
Medicine.
Patients
with heart disease are encouraged to take a baby aspirin every
day as a inexpensive and effective means to prevent blood
clots but aspirin can irritate the stomach lining and cause
bleeding ulcers.
Researchers
at Queen Mary Hospital in Hong Kong assessed 123 heart patients
who were taken off a daily low-dose of aspirin because of
bleeding ulcers caused by the Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori)
bacteria.
After
the patients' ulcers were healed and the H. pylori infection
was eliminated, the patients were randomly assigned to treatment
with 30 mg of lansoprazole (Prevacid) or a placebo, in addition
to 100 mg of aspirin daily, for one year.
During
an average follow-up time of 12 months, nine of the 61 patients
in the group taking a placebo, as compared with one of the
62 patients in the lansoprazole group, had a recurrence of
ulcer complications. Of these 10 patients, four had evidence
of a recurrence of H. pylori infection and two had taken nonsteroidal
anti-inflammatory drugs before the onset of complications.
Patients
in the lansoprazole group were significantly less likely to
have a recurrence of their ulcer than patients taking a placebo.
"In
patients who had ulcer complications related to the long-term
use of low-dose aspirin, treatment with lansoprazole in addition
to the eradication of H. pylori infection significantly reduced
the rate of recurrence of ulcer complications," concluded
the researchers.
Source:
Medical Week staff,
week of June 30, 2002
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