Aspirin Withdrawal in Non-ischaemic Cardiomyopathy Study

NCT01534026 · Status: COMPLETED · Phase: PHASE4 · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 12

Last updated 2016-06-01

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

Heart failure (cardiomyopathy) is a chronic condition in which the heart fails to function as a pump to move blood around the body. Aspirin has been traditionally used in heart failure because a tendency towards blood clots (including stroke and heart attack, clots in the legs and in the lungs) has been observed in this group and aspirin's mechanism of action is to prevent blood clots. This is important because two-thirds of cases of heart failure are caused by a blood clot in the coronary artery resulting in a heart attack, and aspirin is given to reduce the chances of further heart attacks.

However aspirin was introduced before clinical trials as the investigators know them now were run. Systematic review of the trials of aspirin in heart failure has shown that its use does not increase survival, and there is no evidence to recommend its routine use. Another important finding was that use of aspirin may reduce the beneficial effects of ACE inhibitors which do have a mortality benefit, and that aspirin was associated with an increase in hospitalisation for heart failure compared to other drugs which prevent clots or placebo.

The investigators propose that the use of aspirin in heart failure that is not caused by heart attacks ("non-ischaemic cardiomyopathy") is unnecessary and could be stopped. The importance of finding evidence to cease unproven medications in heart failure cannot be understated. Patients with heart failure take an average of six prescription medications each day. Each medication has side effects and the interactions of all the drugs together are unknown. Aspirin itself is a drug which frequently has side effects of increased risk of bleeding, gastrointestinal ulceration, as well as kidney impairment.

In this study, the investigators plan to withdraw aspirin from patients with stable non-ischaemic heart failure in a closely monitored environment and watch for the effect of this on heart failure.

Conditions

Interventions

DRUG

Aspirin

Current dose

OTHER

withdrawal of aspirin

Stopping current dose of aspirin

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • The Alfred

    lead OTHER

Study Design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
SINGLE
Model
CROSSOVER

Eligibility

Min Age
18 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2012-03-31
Primary Completion
2015-02-28
Completion
2015-02-28

Countries

  • Australia

Study Locations

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Entities

Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT01534026 on ClinicalTrials.gov