BusinessWeek
August 13, 2007
HEART HEALTH
An Easy Test For Aspirin Resistance
By Kerry Capell
About 50 million Americans take an aspirin tablet daily in hopes of reducing their risk of heart attacks and strokes, according to The Journal of the American Medical Association. But research in the past decade has found that up to 40% of them--the numbers are in some dispute--may be resistant to aspirin's blood-thinning effects.
Now, Corgenix Medical (CONX ), a Denver diagnostic test-kit maker, has developed AspirinWorks to help doctors identify those not likely to benefit from a daily aspirin dose. A report on the test's efficacy was presented in July by independent Canadian and Australian researchers at a meeting of the International Society on Thrombosis & Haemostasis. Corgenix believes that the annual global market potential for all aspirin resistance testing is more than $1.2 billion.
Approved by the FDA in May, AspirinWorks measures the blood-clotting chemical normally blocked by aspirin. If levels are high, a doctor can prescribe additional or alternative medications such as blood thinners. The kit isn't the only test for aspirin resistance. But it's the first to test urine instead of blood and to assess levels of the blood-clotting molecule instead of signs of clotting, which can have many causes. "Aspirin is a mainstay of cardiac therapy," says Dr. Alexander Duncan, director of the special hemostasis lab at Atlanta's Emory University, one of the first in the U.S. to use the kit. "This is the first time there is a simple-to-use lab test to measure the efficacy of aspirin." |
