aspirin

The new study also calls into question the very idea of aspirin resistance. Testing for the condition became more widespread in the early 2000s, as expensive prescription alternatives like the blood thinner Plavix (also called clopidogrel) gained popularity. Many cardiologists suspected that the timing was not a coincidence.

“Before clopidogrel, we had never heard of aspirin resistance,” said Dr. Sanjay Kaul, a cardiologist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. “It seemed to be that this was driven mostly by marketing considerations.” The new study raises the possibility that many patients may have been falsely told that aspirin doesn’t work on them, Dr. Kaul and other experts said.

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