Boehringer Ingelheim announces results from Espirit study

Boehringer Ingelheim has announced that the results of the European/Australasian stroke prevention in reversible ischaemia trial (Espirit) have revealed that administration with a combination of dipyridamole and aspirin is the “treatment of choice” for the prevention of secondary stroke in patients with stroke of arterial origin.

According to the results of the trial, published in the February issue of Lancet Neurology, this treatment resulted in a 24 per cent relative reduction in the risk of death from vascular causes when compared with medium-intensity anticoagulation therapy.

Professor Ale Algra, lead investigator of the study, said: “The benefit of prescribing dipyridamole plus aspirin to prevent new vascular events in patients who have had a stroke is clear.”

He added that antithrombatic therapy is vital to patients at risk of potentially fatal vascular events and that earlier results from the trial showed this combination treatment was 20 per cent better than treatment solely with aspirin.

Studies comparing fixed-dose combinations of extended release dipyridamole and ASA with clopidogrel are currently being investigated in the prevention regimen for effectively avoiding second strokes trial.

Last month, Boehringer Ingelheim announced the results of a study showing that the capsule form of dabigatran ettexilate is as effective as enoxaparin inn the prevention of thromboembolism in patients following knee operations.