braindrain_94 t1_j7xnbkk wrote on February 10, 2023 at 3:10 AM

Reply to comment by Listenstothesnow in According to a study on 12,211 patients, aspirin is just as effective at preventing blood clots as low molecular weight heparin, but it costs less and is easier to administer by giuliomagnifico

So the two categories of “blood thinners” are anti platelets, and anticoagulants. Aspirin is in the former group, while drugs the article is talking about known as novel oral anticoagulants or NOACs include drugs like apixiban, dabigatran etc. in the latter.

If you have a fib something called a CHADS VAS score is used to determine your risk for a thromboembolic event and wether this outweighs bleed risk. If you have a CHADS VASC >2 in men or >3 in women then NOACs are superior to aspirin in preventing thromboembolism, although aspirin may still be used in addition to NOACs if you have say coronary artery disease.

However, at the moment standard of care for prevention of a recurrent stroke, is using dual anti plalet therapy (DAPT) clopidogrel + Asprin- see SAMPRIS trial.

So aspirin still can have its place but there’s a lot of nuance in deciding the medication regimen for someone.