Risk of AMD linked to prolonged aspirin use
Wednesday, January 30 2013 | 00 h 00 min | News
Researchers from the University of Sydney, Australia, report that taking aspirin over a long period of time increases the risk of developing age-related macular degeneration (AMD).
Researcher Gerald Liew and his team conducted a study which examined 2,389 participants over a period of 15 years. Ten percent of them were regular aspirin users. Study results showed that after 15 years, a quarter of the regular aspirin users had developed neovascular AMD. The rate of neovascular AMD was three times higher among users compared to the other patients. The researchers judged the risk to be “significant,” though they specified that more clinical evidence is needed before they would advise doctors to change how they prescribe aspirin.
When invited to comment on the study, George A. Diamond and Sanjay Kaul, of the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, said the study was interesting, but that its main limitation was its non-randomized design, which means that there was no control group. A randomized study generally allows you to limit the number of factors that could create confusion and distort the analysis.
Aspirin is one of the most widely used drugs worldwide.
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