THAT was very interesting. Thanks for posting. Lots of information there.

Thanks for posting this! Great information. I noticed the article mentioned the use of aspirin/Plavix combo (both anti platelets) as a therapy. I was on that combo after both of my ablations. I dont hear many people mention being on that therapy. In my experience with it, I had excessive bruising (even a BP cuff would cause a bruise) and I believe it was responsible for the effusion that occurred as a result of cardiac perforation during my last ablation to rapidly progress to tamponade. I never experienced excessive bruising/bleeding on aspirin, warfarin or Pradaxa on their own.

I have seen quite a few patients on both warfarin and a baby aspirin. Seemed like it was the cardiologists that liked to do that. I think the idea was that they work in different ways and as long as INR is between 2-3 no problem. Looks like that isn't such a good idea.
What also happens is that when multiple Drs are involved they add medications without realizing all the meds the patient is on. Some patients also neglect to mention aspirin cuz it is otc and they only list their prescription meds. Make sure your Dr knows everything you are taking. If you are prescribed a new med it is a good idea to ask if you are to stop any of your other meds. Drs are often not clear enough!

My EP and my dr both think 81 mg and Pradaxa is ok. I don't seem to have bruising/bleeding issues with Pradaxa. I noticed 81 mg aspirin makes you bleed more . BTW, you can't "reverse" aspirin.

"aspirin permanently inhibits platelet thromboxane
production and clopidogrel permanently inhibits
PLADP for the life of the platelet. The platelet aggregation
response to AA recovers within 4 days of stopping aspirin,
whereas the platelet aggregation response to ADP recovers
within 10 days of stopping clopidogrel."

petey

Petey, are you going to continue both?
In my experience, the cardiologists seem to like keeping the aspirin. I think it likely decreases your risk of afib stroke. But if you talk to GI or Neuro docs my guess is that they wouldn't recommend it because they see the other bleeding events. Hard to know what to do.

marikay: What is curious is that I have been on 81 mg since I was 40 because my doctor recommended it and that is what most male doctors have been doing for themselves I was told. I'll have to look at the absolute numbers of bleeds as the %s don't tell the story. My cholesterol has always been around 150 and my hdl 60, so it wasn't a specific treatment for me. Some people take 81 mg every other day. petey