A recent study by a team of professors from the Faculty of Medicine of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, found that aspirin is associated with a reduced risk of intubation and death among patients diagnosed with COVID-19.
Professors from the NKUA Therapeutic Clinic, Efstathios Kastritis and Thanos Dimopoulos, confirm that findings from an observational study show that aspirin can potentially help in the battle against the novel coronavirus.
The study published in the medical journal Anesthesia & Analgesia states that aspirin, although it is a " simple, affordable and widely available drug, " has played a role beneficial in the treatment of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 and is likely to reduce the chances of a patient being admitted to an intensive care unit (ICU).
However, the study clarifies that so far there is no scientific evidence that death rates from COVID-19 can be reduced thanks to aspirin, and similarly, the Greek professors emphasized to the public that no research has shown whether the Aspirin can help prevent or reduce the chances of COVID-19 infection.
The study analyzed data on 412 COVID-19 infected patients (mean age 55 years) from a database of four major hospitals in the United States.
Of these patients, 314 did not receive aspirin at all.
Of the remaining patients who received aspirin, 75.5% received it before admission to hospital and 86.7% received it within 24 hours of admission to hospital. The mean aspirin dose was 81 mg, and the mean treatment duration was 6 days.
Patients who received aspirin were more likely to have a history of hypertension, type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, and kidney disease, and the proportion of those who received treatment for COVID-19 did not differ between groups.
Analysis of patient data showed that aspirin use is associated with less need for intubation (35.7% vs 48.4% when aspirin was not administered) and less admissions to an intensive care unit (38.8% vs 51% for patients not taking aspirin).
After adjusting for eight important variables for all patients (age, sex, body mass index, race, hypertension and history of diabetes), aspirin appears to reduce the need for intubation (44% risk reduction), ICU placement (by 43%), and in-hospital mortality (by 47%).
In addition, no difference in clinically evident bleeding or thrombosis was seen among those taking aspirin. and those that don't, making aspirin a safe option, for the most part, for infected patients.
Tags:
Anesthesia and analgesia, aspirants, covid-19, COVID-19 treatment, covid-19 vaccine, Efstathios Kastritis, medical research, Faculty of Medicine of the National University and Kapodistria of Athens, study physician, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Thanos Dimopoulos, University of Athens
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