#128 Aspirin Overhyped and Overused

Aspirin’ to figure out if ASA can help prevent a heart attack? Interpreting all the new trials doesn’t have to cause chest pain! Join Dr. Ambarish Pandey from UT Southwestern as he helps The Curbsiders ASCEND the mountains of the latest studies to ARRIVE at some well-informed conclusions on the role of aspirin in primary prevention for cardiac events. The team also discusses secondary prevention, aspirin and dual (or triple) antiplatelet therapy, and whether it’s okay to stop giving aspirin to older adults without known CAD (Spoiler alert: it’s okay). ACP members can visit https://acponline.org/curbsiders to claim free CME-MOC credit for this episode and show notes (goes live 0900 EST). Full show notes available at http://thecurbsiders.com/podcast. Join our mailing list and receive a PDF copy of our show notes every Monday. Rate us on iTunes, recommend a guest or topic and give feedback at [email protected]. Credits Written and produced by: Justin Berk MD, Matthew Watto MD CME questions by: Justin Berk MD Hosts: Matthew Watto MD, Paul Williams MD, Stuart Brigham MD Edited by: Matthew Watto MD and Chris Chiu MD Guest: Dr. Ambarish Pandey MD Time Stamps 00:00 Disclaimer, intro and guest bio 04:15 Guest one liner, book recommendation, career and research advice 11:07 Case of aspirin for primary prevention, aspirin’s public persona, and nocebo effects of statins 21:40 ARRIVE and ASCEND trials 28:14 Aspree trial 32:38 Coronary artery calcium; aspirin use for secondary prevention 37:42 Dual antiplatelet therapy and the DAPT score 41:25 Should we continue aspirin when a patient also needs a DOAC? 46:14 Should we continue DAPT in a patient who needs a DOAC (or warfarin)? 49:40 Deprescribing aspirin for primary prevention in older adults? 50:51 Closing remarks 52:33 Outro