TUESDAY, Oct. 29, 2019 (HealthDay News) — Aspirin is associated with a reduced rate of aneurysm growth for patients with multiple intracranial aneurysms, according to a review published online Oct. 29 in the Journal of Neurosurgery.
Mario Zanaty, M.D., from the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City, and colleagues conducted a retrospective review of a prospectively maintained database to examine whether aspirin is protective against aneurysm growth in patients harboring multiple intracranial aneurysms ≤5 mm. Data were included for 146 patients harboring 375 intracranial aneurysms.
One hundred forty-six aneurysms were treated at the initial encounter, and 229 aneurysms (2 to 5 mm) were observed. The researchers found that 10.48 percent of the 229 aneurysms grew during the follow-up period; all of these aneurysms later underwent treatment. Rupture did not occur in any of the observed aneurysms. Aspirin was associated with a significantly decreased rate of aneurysm growth in multivariate analysis (odds ratio, 0.19). Hypertension, drug abuse, history of polycystic kidney disease, and subarachnoid hemorrhage at presentation were associated with a significantly increased rate of aneurysm growth (odds ratios, 14.38, 11.26, 9.48, and 5.91, respectively).
“This study is very promising, as it outlines for the first time the potential therapeutic effect of aspirin in decreasing aneurysm growth. If proven in a larger study, this could offer the first, cheap, effective over-the-counter therapeutic agent that could halt aneurysm growth and prevent rupture,” a coauthor said in a statement. “Many people around the world could benefit from this.”
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