Reactions 598 - 27 Apr 1996

■ Aspirin + low-dose warfarin led to significantlyhigher faecal haemoglobin excretion compared withconventional warfarin therapy alone after 1 month oftreatment, according to the preliminary findings of aUS study. Patients received either warfarin (n = 32),enteric-coated aspirin 325 mg/day + warfarin 1–3mg/day (31) or aspirin alone (54). The researchers saythat these preliminary data raise the possibility thatmore major clinical gastrointestinal bleeding episodeswill occur with warfarin + aspirin, compared toconventional warfarin therapy. The ongoing trial willevaluate whether haemoglobin monitoring will allowprediction of bleeding episodes.Blackshear JL, et al. Fecal hemoglobin excretion in elderly patients with atrialfibrillation: combined aspirin and low-dose warfarin vs conventional warfarintherapy. Archives of Internal Medicine 156: 658-660, 25 Mar1996 800432340

1

Reactions 27 Apr 1996 No. 5980114-9954/10/0598-0001/$14.95 Adis © 2010 Springer International Publishing AG. All rights reserved