Study: Daily Aspirin Does Not Reduce Risk of Major Cardiovascular Events

Daily aspirin did not reduce the occurrence of major cardiovascular events a study of more than 12,500 participants considered to be at risk, according to the results of the ARRIVE trial, presented this week at the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Meeting in Munich, Germany.

Michael Gaziano, MD, a preventive cardiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, presented findings from the Aspirin to Reduce Risk of Initial Vascular Events (ARRIVE) study, which was sponsored by Bayer. The study was a randomized, controlled clinical trial of the use of daily aspirin to prevent a first cardiovascular event among more than 12,500 participants considered to be at moderate cardiovascular risk.

The benefits of taking aspirin to prevent a second or subsequent cardiovascular event have been well established in previous studies but the effectiveness of taking aspirin to prevent a first cardiovascular event has been unclear, despite 30 years of randomized clinical trials. The sought to assess both the potential benefits as well as the risks to people at moderate risk of cardiovascular disease who may already be receiving some protection from modern preventative and therapeutic strategies.

Participants were randomly assigned to receive either daily aspirin tablets (100 mg) or a placebo. A total of 12,546 participants were enrolled from primary care settings in the UK, Poland, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Spain, and the U.S. The primary endpoint was time to first occurrence of a composite of cardiovascular death, heart attack, unstable angina, stroke, and transient ischemic attack.

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