Aspirin As Good As Warfarin For Some Stroke Prevention

Large doses of ordinary aspirin are as effective as the anticoagulant drug warfarin in preventing stroke in people with partial blockages of the brain arteries, a new trial shows. Intracranial stenosis, as this artery-blocking condition is formally known, causes about 10 percent of the strokes in the United States each year. Neurologists have long tried to prevent those strokes by giving patients warfarin, better known as Coumadin. However, "aspirin should [now] be used in preference to warfarin for people with intracranial arterial stenosis," concludes the study, published in the March 31 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.