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Patients using aspirin should be on different medication

Health & Science

 

New guidance advises GPs NOT to prescribe the drug to those suffering from Atrial fibrillation

Hundreds of thousands of people taking aspirin for a common heart condition should be on other medication instead, experts say today.

Atrial fibrillation is the most common heart rhythm disturbance and affects up to 800,000 people in the UK.

Around one in four patients are currently on aspirin. But new guidance published today by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) advises doctors not to prescribe it to them.

Instead, patients should be given anticoagulant drugs which prevent blood clots forming.

Dr Campbell Cowan, chair of the Guideline Development Group, said: "Aspirin has been a little bit of a smokescreen to anticoagulation. We now know it is not safer and it's questionable whether it has any effect at all."

He sought to reassure patients though, saying they should not stop taking aspirin automatically, but instead make an appointment with their GP to discuss their options.

Seven thousand strokes and 2,000 premature deaths could be avoided if people with an irregular heart rhythm were diagnosed and medicated properly, research suggests. Just half of those who should be on anticoagulants are.

Almost one in 10 over-75s live with the condition. It happens when electrical impulses in the heart become disorganised causing an increased risk of blood clots and therefore stroke when blood is not pumped around the body as efficiently as it should be.

Under the new guidance a range of newer oral anticoagulants, that do not require such regular monitoring or dose adjustments, will be recommended.

Eileen Porter, 66, a former nurse who has lived with AF for 10 years, said: "AF is a mongrel of a disease. You don't feel in control, you are frightened when first diagnosed.

"I hope this new guidance gives patients the confidence to speak to their doctors and discuss the options, finding the best one for them."

-Mirror

 

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