Aspirin’s benefits may be blunted in black women
In the aspirin-treated African American women, levels of hsCRP remained static over time, going from a mean of 4.53 mg/L at baseline to 4.62 mg/L at 6 months. In placebo-treated African American women, however, hsCRP jumped from 3.34 mg/L at baseline to 8.36 mg/L at follow-up.
The mean hsCRP in white women on aspirin dropped from 2.13 to 1.6 mg/L over the course of 6 months, while with placebo it went from 2.19 to 2.69 mg/L.
Levels of IL-6 in aspirin-treated African American women climbed from 0.93 pg/mL at baseline to 2.56 pg/mL at 6 months. In contrast, mean IL-6 levels in white women on daily aspirin fell from 2.69 to 1.39 pg/mL. White women on placebo experienced a rise in IL-6 from 0.58 to 2.97 pg/mL.
Most of these differences didn’t achieve statistical significance because of the small sample size, but the consistent trends suggest an overall blunted response to the anti-inflammatory effects of aspirin among African Americans, according to Dr. Alghothani. She added that these findings might help explain the well-documented ethnic disparities in cardiovascular outcomes, whereby African American women have a significantly higher cardiovascular mortality rate than white women despite on average having higher HDL and lower triglycerides.
Her study was funded by the university’s Center for Women’s Health. She reported no financial conflicts.
