Heart Study: Low- and Regular-Dose Aspirin Prove Safe, Effective

An unusual study that had thousands of heart disease patients enroll themselves and track their health online as they took low- or regular-strength aspirin concluded that both doses seem equally safe and effective for preventing additional heart problems and strokes.

But there's a big caveat: People had such a strong preference for the lower dose that it's unclear if the results can establish that the treatments are truly equivalent, some independent experts said. Half who were told to take the higher dose took the lower one instead or quit using aspirin altogether. "Patients basically decided for themselves" what they wanted to take because they bought the aspirin on their own, said Dr. Salim Virani, a cardiologist at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, who had no role in the study. Still, the results show there's little reason to take the higher dose, 325 milligrams, which many doctors assumed would work better than 81-milligram "baby aspirin," he said.