Certain painkillers 'could increase risk of heart failure'

Arthritis patients who take common painkillers such as ibuprofen could be at a greater risk of heart failure, according to a new large-scale study.The research, led by the University of Milano-Bicocca in Italy and utilising data from more than eight million patients, has offered evidence that non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) may lead to an elevated risk of a person being hospitalised with heart problems, meaning caution may need to be employed when using them.The heart health risks of NSAIDsPublished in the British Medical Journal, the study aimed to investigate the cardiovascular safety of NSAIDs and to estimate the risk of hospital admission for heart failure with use of individual NSAIDs.Assessing population-based healthcare databases from the Netherlands, Italy, Germany and the UK, a total of 92,163 hospital admissions for heart failure were identified and matched with 8.2 million healthy controls.It was shown that use of any NSAID within the preceding 14 days was associated with a 19 per cent increase of risk of hospital admission for heart failure, when compared with those who had not used NSAIDs for more than 183 days.This risk was specifically associated with ibuprofen, diclofenac, indomethacin, ketorolac, naproxen, nimesulide, piroxicam, etoricoxib and rofecoxib, with the chances of heart failure doubling among those taking diclofenac, etoricoxib, indomethacin, piroxicam and rofecoxib at very high doses. Even medium doses of indomethacin and etoric...
Source: Arthritis Research UK - Category: Rheumatology Source Type: news