As part of a ploy to find a possible COVID-19 treatment, thousands of patients infected with the novel coronavirus will be given aspirin to see if the medication can reduce the risk of patients developing dangerous blood clots due to their hyper-reactive platelets.
The new treatment is part of the Randomised Evaluation of Covid-19 therapy (Recovery) trial and is currently one of the largest COVID-19 treatment trials in Britain.
Individuals infected with COVID-19 have hyper-reactive platelets, which put them at a higher risk of developing fatal blood clots.
Co-chief investigator of the trial, Prof Martin Landray, announced:
“Aspirin is widely used to prevent blood clots in many other conditions, including heart attack, stroke, and pre-eclampsia in pregnant women,”
“But enrolling patients in a randomised trial such as Recovery is the only way to assess whether there are clear benefits for patients with Covid-19 and whether those benefits outweigh any potential side-effects such as the risk of bleeding.”
Patients participating in the test will be given 150mg of aspirin daily, along with their usual regimen.
Data from the patients who received the aspirin will then be compared with 2000 separate patients who only received their typical COVID-19 treatment.
The Panthera Post 