In two articles, published in Circulation, researchers from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine provide further evidence for the role of cyclooxygenases (COX) in heart-disease risk. In one, a statistical meta-analysis of two placebo-controlled trials, the COX-2 inhibitor Bextra elevated the combined incidence of heart attack and stroke three-fold in coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery patients. In the second, the investigators found that a fat produced by COX-1 speeds hardening of the arteries in a mouse model of atherosclerosis, which may have implications for low-dose aspirin therapy in heart patients.
