A study from the Stroke Service at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) has found that some patients who have survived an intracerebral hemorrhage - a stroke caused by bleeding in the brain - may be safely treated with aspirin to prevent future heart attacks or strokes caused by blood clots.
The study, appearing in the January 24 issue of the journal Neurology, addresses a fairly common clinical dilemma.
"The two types of stroke - ischemic, caused by a clot cutting off the brain's blood supply, and hemorrhagic, caused by bleeding in the brain - share many of the same risk factors," says Eric Smith, MD, MPH, of MGH Neurology, the study's senior author. "Physicians often see patients with a history of intracerebral hemorrhage who are also at risk for ischemic stroke or heart attacks and need to decide what kind of preventive treatment to recommend. We have not yet had a good answer to whether daily aspirin therapy would be safe for these patients or would increase the risk of another hemorrhage."