Additive Benefits of Pravastatin and Aspirin to Decrease Risks of Cardiovascular Disease: Randomized and Observational Comparisons of Secondary Prevention Trials and Their Meta-analyses

Abstract

The authors investigated whether the antiatherogenic effects of pravastatin sodium and the antiplatelet effects of aspirin have additive clinical benefits. Meta-analyses were undertaken of the Long-Term Intervention With Pravastatin in lschaemic Disease trial and the Cholesterol and Recurrent Events trial to see if pravastatin and aspirin have additive benefits. Similar additive benefits of pravastatin and aspirin on cardiovascular disease were shown. The relative risk reduction with pravastatin and aspirin was 31% for myocardial infarction compared with aspirin alone and 26% compared with pravastatin alone. The authors concluded that increasing use of the combination to the current level of aspirin use would avoid large numbers of premature death.