Aspirin Is Safe for Heart Failure Patients

Previous research has suggested that aspirin use could worsen outcomes in patients with heart failure taking ARBs or ACE inhibitors. In a recent study, researchers further investigated the effects of aspirin use in this patient population.

Compared with warfarin, aspirin is not associated with an increased risk of hospitalizations and death related to heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF), according to the results of a recent trial.
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In order to examine the effects of aspirin use on HFrEF patients who received an angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor or angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB), researchers conducted a study involving 2305 patients enrolled in the Warfarin versus Aspirin in Reduced Cardiac Ejection Fraction (WARCEF) trial.

After adjusting for baseline covariates, the researchers found no differences in the time to first heart failure event or hospitalization in aspirin- and warfarin-treated patients. Extended Cox models also revealed no significant differences between the groups.

“Among patients with HF with reduced ejection fraction in the WARCEF trial, there was no significant difference in risk of HF events between the aspirin and warfarin-treated patients,” the researchers concluded.

—Michael Potts

Reference:

Teerlink JR, Qian M, Bello NA, et al. Aspirin does not increase heart failure events in heart failure patients. JACC Heart Failure. 2017;5(8).