Prevalence of Aspirin Resistance in Indian Patients with Coronary Artery Disease: A Study of 1,000 Cases

Background: Aspirin is safe in secondary prevention of coronary artery disease mainly because of its antiplatelet actions, decreasing the chance of unfavorable cardiological outcomes. Nevertheless, the issue of aspirin resistance, defined as lower efficacies of antiplatelet effects, seems a crucial clinical problem. Though, researches across the globe have studied this problem, however literature available concerning the Indian population is scarce. Objective: The present work also seeks to establish the proportion of Indian patients diagnosed with CAD who are resistant to aspirin and identify correlation between aspirin resistance and demographic, clinical and therapeutic characteristics. Methods: This was a cross-sectional survey with 1000 Indian CAD patients from several tertiary care centers. Diagnosis of aspirin resistance was made based on plate function tests and application of a cut-off value defining sensitivity and specificity. Patients’ demographic details and clinical records were obtained, and information regarding the treatment that they received was also obtained. Descriptive statistics were computed to demonstrate prevalence rates of aspirin resistance, and inferential statistics for prediction. Results: The authors identified that the overall prevalence of AR among the study sample was X% (Cl: X%-X%). Secondary analysis by different subgroups showed the following: Resistance level had significant correlation with age, gender, comorbidities including diabetes and hypertension as well as aspirin dosage. Just as expected, the observed aspirin resistance was found to be responsible for more cardiovascular relapses than the normal platelet response patients.