Aspirin for the Primary Prevention of Myocardial Infarction

Abstract

Under the somewhat ill-defined rubric "Special Report," we publish in this week's issue a preliminary report from the Physicians' Health Study, a double-blinded, controlled trial of aspirin in the prevention of cardiovascular disease and of beta carotene in the prevention of cancer.¹ After more than 59,000 volunteers were screened, 22,000 male U.S. physicians 40 to 84 years of age were entered in the trial and randomly assigned to receive one of four treatments: (1) buffered aspirin (325 mg) and beta carotene (50 mg), (2) buffered aspirin and beta carotene placebo, (3) aspirin placebo and beta carotene, and (4) aspirin placebo . . .