Aspirin 'as effective as heart bypass surgery'

CHICAGO - Treating first-time heart-attack patients with aspirin and other drugs is less costly and can be as beneficial as invasive procedures such as heart bypass surgery, researchers have said.

The seven-year study of nearly 160,000 Medicare patients in the US said treating patients with aspirin, blood pressure drugs and anti-clotting medications produced survival rates comparable to those of invasive procedures if managed carefully.

More than 280,000 patients covered by Medicare, the Government health care programme for older Americans, are admitted to hospitals each year after suffering a heart attack and 18 per cent die within 30 days.

Younger and healthier patients were more likely to receive more intensive treatment than higher-risk older patients, although the latter would benefit more.

In regions with abundant medical resources such as catheterisation labs, patients had a 6 per cent better seven-year survival rate than regions with the fewest resources. But in area of the country with better care, invasive procedures did not boost survival rates beyond those produced by intensive drug treatment, a style of care called medical management.

"While survival has improved [over] 30 years, invasive treatment and medical management are not optimal as practised in the US," wrote author Therese Stukel of Dartmouth Medical School.

In the report in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Stukel recommended that comprehensive drug treatment for first-time heart attack patients be made a "national priority".

- REUTERS