Regular
aspirin consumption may be associated with an increased risk of neovascular
age-related macular degeneration, says a new study.
Researchers in Australia have
found that regular aspirin consumption is associated with an increased risk of
neovascular age-related macular degeneration (AMD) – a leading cause of
blindness in older people.
The research, carried out at the
Center for Vision Research from the Westmead Millennium Institute for Medical
Research (WMI), shows that the risk appears to be independent of a history of
smoking, which is also a known preventable risk factor for AMD.
Aspirin is one of the most widely
used medications in the world with more than 100 billion tablets consumed each
year. It is commonly used in the prevention of cardiovascular disease, such as
myocardial infarction (heart attack) and ischemic stroke.
While a five-year European study
published last year suggested that regular aspirin use (defined as once or more
per week in the past year) was associated with AMD, other studies had reported
inconsistent findings.
The study, carried out by the
Center for Vision Research’s Dr. Gerald Liew and colleagues, was conducted over
a much longer period and found clear evidence of the risk.
They conducted a prospective
analysis of data from an Australian study (the Blue Mountains Eye Study) that
included four examinations during a 15-year period.
Of 2,389 participants, 257
individuals (10.8 percent) were regular aspirin users. After the 15-year
follow-up, 63 individuals from the 2,389 participants developed incident
neovascular AMD, according to the results.
“The cumulative incidence of
neovascular AMD among nonregular aspirin users was 0.8 percent at five years,
1.6 percent at 10 years, and 3.7 percent at 15 years,” said the director of
WMI’s Center for Vision Research, Professor Paul Mitchell.
“Among regular aspirin users, the
cumulative incidence was 1.9 percent at five years, 7 percent at 10 years and
9.3 percent at 15 years, respectively, indicating that regular aspirin use is
significantly associated with an increased incidence of neovascular AMD. This
increase was around 2.5-fold, after accounting for potentially confounding
variables.”
The report’s authors note that
any decision concerning whether to stop aspirin therapy is “complex and needs
to be individualized.” Further confirmation of these findings will also be
important.
“Currently, there is insufficient
evidence to recommend changing clinical practice, except perhaps in patients
with strong risk factors for neovascular AMD (such as existing late AMD in the
fellow eye) in whom it may be appropriate to raise the potentially small risk
of incident neovascular AMD with long-term aspirin therapy,” the authors
conclude.
Source: University
of Sydney.
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