1.Aspirin resistance among patients with recurrent non-cardioembolic stroke detected by rapid platelet function analyzer
Jose C Navarro ; Annabelle Y Lao ; Maricar P Yumul ; Maria Leticia C Araullo ; Johnny K Lokin ; Alejandro C Baroque ii
Neurology Asia 2007;12(1):89-95
Background and Objective: The prevalence of aspirin resistance amongst patients with cardiovascular
disease and in the healthy population has been reported to range from 5% to 45%. Lately, rapid platelet
function analyzer (RPFA) a point-of-care determination of platelet aggregability has been introduced for
rapid determination of aspirin resistant patients. The purpose of this paper is to report the prevalence
of aspirin resistance among patients with recurrent non cardioembolic ischemic stroke as detected
by RPFA (Ultegra®). Methods: Seventy-seven patients with mean age of 61.2 + 10.4 (range 33-87
years) who developed recurrent non-cardioembolic ischemic stroke were consecutively included in the
study. Fifty-seven (74%) were males. Aspirin resistance was determined using the RPFA (Ultegra®)
machine. Patients with an aspirin reaction unit (ARU) value above 550 were identified as aspirin
resistant. Results: Following this method, the prevalence of aspirin resistance was determined to be
10.4% (95% CI: 1% to17%). Comparison of baseline characteristics between aspirin resistant and
aspirin responsive patients did not show any significant difference.
Conclusion: The prevalence of aspirin resistance in this study was 10.4% amongst patients with
recurrent non-cardioembolic ischemic stroke. The study has shown the feasibility of utilizing RPFA
(Ultegra®) machine in detecting aspirin resistance.