Aspirin for Prevention of Stroke and Cardiovascular Events Among Patients With Peripheral Artery Disease
- Hisato Takagi, MD, PhD kfgth973@ybb.ne.jp;
- Takuya Umemoto, MD, PhDDepartment of Cardiovascular SurgeryShizuoka Medical CenterShizuoka, Japan
Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text.
- KEYWORDS:
- ASPIRIN
- CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASES
- DATA INTERPRETATION, STATISTICAL
- DIPYRIDAMOLE
- DRUG THERAPY
- PERIPHERAL VASCULAR DISEASES
- PUBLICATION BIAS
- STROKE
To the Editor: Dr Berger and colleagues1 conducted a meta-analysis investigating aspirin for prevention of cardiovascular events in patients with peripheral arterial disease (PAD). They found that treatment with aspirin alone or with dipyridamole in patients with PAD resulted in a statistically nonsignificant decrease in cardiovascular events and a statistically significant reduction in nonfatal stroke. Although funnel plots were reportedly generated for cardiovascular events, the authors did not assess publication bias for nonfatal stroke.
In the subset of 6 randomized controlled trials of aspirin alone (including trials in which either the treatment or control group did not have any events, but excluding trials in which both groups had no events), aspirin was associated with a significant reduction in nonfatal stroke (pooled relative risk [RR], 0.64; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.42-0.99). To assess the effect of possible publication bias, we recommend using a trim and fill adjustment.2 This is …
