Possible Interaction: Aspirin and Niacin

“ Aspirin reduced the incidence of warmth and flushing associated with niacin , but not the itching and tingling.”

“The National Cholesterol Education Program recommends giving aspirin or another nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug before administering niacin.”

“ Aspirin pretreatment resulted in smaller ΔMTCIs at the higher doses of nicotinic acid.”

“As in humans, NA stimulated vasodilation in a dose-dependent manner, was associated with an increase of the vasodilatory prostaglandin (PG) D2 in plasma and could be blocked by pretreatment with aspirin.”

“In a subset of subjects who had …‐to‐severe flushing symptoms despite taking swallowed aspirin , flushing in … subsequent niacin use was decreased by 20.5% (p = 0.05) with coadministration of orally dissolved aspirin … 18.0% with a regimen containing both orally dissolved and swallowed aspirin (p = 0.03).”

“Purpose Results of a study to test the hypothesis that taking niacin simultaneously with different forms of aspirin would reduce the occurrence of niacin‐induced flushing are reported.”

“Results Simultaneous administration of swallowed aspirin and niacin reduced moderate‐to‐severe flushing events by a mean of 36.1%, from 2.35 to 1.5 events per subject (p = 0.003), relative to event rates with use of niacin alone.”

“Flushing may be minimized by taking niacin with meals (or at bedtime with a low-fat snack), avoiding exacerbating factors (alcohol or hot beverages), and taking 325 mg of aspirin 30 minutes before niacin dosing.”

“CONCLUSION As irin si gnificantly reduced the incidence, intensity and duration of flushing associated with reformulated nia cin ER.”

“The addition of aspirin might prove a useful adjunct that might reduce the cutaneous side effects of NA while also acting as an antiplatelet agent in high-CVD-risk patients.”

“Pre-incubation of the cells with aspirin (100 microM) entirely prevented the nicotinic acid effects on PGD2 secretion.”

“ Nicotinic acid (niacin) may have potential drug interactions with high dose aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid), uricosuric agents (such as sulfapyrazone) and alcohol (ethanol).”

“Among the pharmacokinetic parameters of … (n = 6) treated with NA … ASA 50 mg/kg were 2.3374 h and 361.63 micrograms.h/ml, respectively, both significantly different from those …/kg alone which were 0.9846 h and 157.71 micrograms.h/ml, respectively (p less than 0.01).”