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FRIDAY, Aug. 10 (HealthDay News) -- The largest study ever of its kind finds the clot-preventing drug warfarin to be more effective than aspirin in preventing strokes in older people with the abnormal heartbeat called atrial fibrillation.
The incidence of dangerous hemorrhages connected to the use of these anticlotting agents was also much lower than had been feared, British researchers report.
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"My interpretation of the finding is warfarin ought to be the treatment of choice for such people over the age of 75," said lead researcher Dr. Jonathan Mant, a reader in stroke epidemiology at the University of Birmingham.
His team presented its findings in the Aug. 11 issue of the journal The Lancet.
Stroke is a constant threat for people with atrial fibrillation, in which the upper chambers of the heart quiver rather than regularly contract. This can disrupt the heart's pumping ability and send a clot from the heart to the brain, potentially causing stroke.
Warfarin, also known as Coumadin, has long been prescribed to prevent such strokes and has been more or less standard for most people with atrial fibrillation. However, its use for people over 75 has been limited due to fears of excess bleeding.
However, in the current study, Mant said, "we found that the risk of bleeding on warfarin was the same as on aspirin."
The study involved 973 people with atrial fibrillation, averaging 81 years of age. The number of participants may not seem large, but it is greater than the total of all the previous studies that have looked at the use of warfarin to prevent stroke in those 75 and older, Mant noted. Earlier trials tended to concentrate on non-elderly people, he said.
However, warfarin more than halved users' risk of stroke compared to aspirin. There were just 21 strokes in the warfarin group and 44 in the aspirin group during a follow-up period that averaged 2.7 years, the researchers reported.
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