Asprin post minor stroke brings down risk of major strikes!

Zee Media Bureau

New Delhi: Consuming asprin minutes after you've had a minor stroke could substantially bring down the risk of major strikes in patients, claims a study.

A team of European researchers has said that immediate self-treatment with aspirin when patients experience stroke-like symptoms would considerably reduce the risk of major stroke over the next few days.

Aspirin is already given to people who have had a stroke or transient ischaemic attack (TIA -- often called a 'mini-stroke') to prevent further strokes after they have been assessed in hospital and in the longer-term, reducing the subsequent stroke risk by about 15 percent.

However, based on a previous study, the team suspected that the benefits of more immediate treatment with aspirin could be much greater.

The team revisited the individual patient data from twelve trials (about 16,000 people) of aspirin for long-term secondary prevention -- that is, to prevent a further stroke -- and data on about 40,000 people from three trials of aspirin in treatment of acute stroke.

They found that almost all of the benefit of aspirin in reducing the risk of another stroke was in the first few weeks, and that aspirin also reduced the severity of these early strokes.

(With IANS inputs)