Aspirin doesn't cut diabetics' heart risk

KUMAMOTO, Japan, Nov. 11 (UPI) -- Low-dose aspirin did not appear to significantly reduce the risk of cardiovascular events in patients with type 2 diabetes, U.S. researchers said.

Dr. Hisao Ogawa of Kumamoto University, Japan, and colleagues from the Japanese Primary Prevention of Atherosclerosis with Aspirin for Diabetes said aspirin did significantly reduce the combination of fatal coronary and fatal cerebrovascular events.

The researchers examined whether low-dose aspirin would be beneficial for primary prevention of atherosclerotic -- narrowing or hardening of the arteries because of plaque build-up -- events in patients with type 2 diabetes.

From Dec. 2002 through April 2008, 2,539 patients with type 2 diabetes and no history of atherosclerotic disease from 163 institutions in Japan.

"A total of 154 atherosclerotic events occurred: 68 in the aspirin group and 86 in the non-aspirin group," the researchers said in a statement. "In the 1,363 patients aged 65 years or older -- 719 in the aspirin group and 644 in the non-aspirin group -- the incidence of atherosclerotic events was significantly lower in the aspirin group -- 45 events, or 6.3 percent -- than in the non-aspirin group -- 59 events, 9.2 percent."

In the 1,176 patients younger than age 65 the difference among events in the two groups was not significant.

The findings are published in the Journal of the American Medical Association and presented at the American Heart Association meeting in New Orleans.