The effect of acetylsalicylic acid on thrombin generation in healthy volunteers.
Level 3 - non-randomized controlled study
Prospective single-arm self-controlled intervention study
PubMed 41476377 · doi:10.1097/MBC.0000000000001401
What was done
In a single-center prospective study, 18 healthy volunteers aged 27–54 took low-dose aspirin (81 mg daily) for 7 days, serving as their own controls. Blood samples were collected at baseline, after the 7-day regimen, and 2 weeks post-discontinuation. Platelet-poor plasma was analyzed via calibrated automated thrombogram (CAT) to assess endogenous thrombin potential (ETP; primary endpoint), lag time, peak thrombin generation, time to peak, and velocity index using paired t-tests.
What was found
Low-dose aspirin did not significantly alter ETP or any secondary CAT parameter. Mean (standard deviation) ETP was 1750 (237) nmol/l·min at baseline compared to 1832 (301) nmol/l·min after 7 days on aspirin. Secondary parameters (lag time, peak thrombin generation, time to peak, velocity index) likewise showed no statistically significant differences.
Why it matters
This study demonstrates that low-dose aspirin has no detectable effect on plasma thrombin generation kinetics in healthy individuals, clarifying that its antithrombotic actions do not operate via altered secondary hemostatic potential in platelet-poor plasma.
Limits
The study had a very small sample size (n = 18) and lacked a separate parallel control group. It tested only healthy individuals using platelet-poor plasma, precluding direct generalizability to clinical populations with vascular disease, hypercoagulability, or effects dependent on platelet-plasma interactions.
Cited by
- contradicts Aspirin activates both procoagulant and anticoagulant biological pathways, but its net overall physiological effect is anticoagulation.