Daily aspirin use could reduce the risk of acute exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, new data suggest.
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Researchers reported the outcomes of an observational cohort study of 1,698 individuals with COPD, 45% of whom said they were taking daily aspirin at baseline. Their findings were published in Chest.
After a median follow up of 2.7 years, aspirin users had an overall 22% lower incidence of acute COPD exacerbations compared with nonusers. This was largely accounted for by a 25% reduction in moderate exacerbations, but there was no significant difference between aspirin users and nonusers in severe exacerbations.
A similar pattern was seen after just 1 year of follow-up, with an overall 30% reduction in the incidence of exacerbations, a 37% reduction in moderate exacerbations, but no significant reduction in severe exacerbations.
“Though aspirin use has previously been linked with reduced mortality risk in patients with COPD, to our knowledge, this is the first study to investigate the association of daily aspirin use with respiratory morbidity in COPD,” wrote Ashraf Fawzy, MD, of the division of pulmonary and critical care medicine at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, and his coauthors.
The association between aspirin use and reduced incidence of exacerbations was stronger among individuals with chronic bronchitis, which prompted the authors to suggest that future studies of aspirin in COPD should focus on participants with chronic bronchitis.
However, the association was not affected by COPD severity, emphysema presence or severity, or cardiometabolic phenotype.
Aspirin users reported better respiratory-specific quality of life than that of nonusers, including 34% lower odds of reporting moderate to severe dyspnea, and better baseline COPD health status.
“Findings of this study add to the existing literature by highlighting that aspirin use is also associated with reduced respiratory morbidity across several domains – including exacerbation risk, quality of life, and dyspnea – factors related to patient well-being and healthcare utilization,” the authors wrote.
Aspirin users were more likely to be white, male, and obese, and less likely to be smokers. They had better lung function but more cardiovascular comorbidities at baseline, although the aspirin users and nonusers were matched on baseline characteristics.
Speculating on the mechanisms by which aspirin might impact COPD exacerbations, the authors noted that the drug has both systemic and local pulmonary mechanisms of action.
For example, a pathway that results in elevated levels of a urinary metabolite in patients with COPD is irreversibly blocked by aspirin. Aspirin also attenuates the elevation of inflammatory markers interleukin-6 and C-reactive protein, which are part of the inflammatory phenotype of COPD. Aspirin has been shown to reduce proinflammatory cytokines in the lung.
The authors did note that aspirin use was self-reported, so they did not have data on dosage or duration of use.
The National Institutes of Health funded the study. Six authors declared advisory board positions, research support, and other funding from the pharmaceutical sector. One author was also a founder of a company commercializing lung image analysis software. No other conflicts of interest were declared.
SOURCE: Fawzy A et al. Chest. 2019 Mar;155(3): 519-27. doi: 10.1016/j.chest.2018.11.028.