Furberg, a professor of public health at Wake Forest University, said
his stroke concerns stem from a new 107-page report on patients who were
followed for a year after they stopped taking Vioxx.
The dangers caused by Vioxx may begin early and may last long after use
is stopped. Joe Neel of NPR says the risk of heart attacks, strokes and
serious peripheral vascular disorders began to increase soon after
people started taking 25 mg of Vioxx each day. It is unclear whether
the 50mg dose was more or less dangerous than the 25mg dose.
Neel adds that the risk is difficult to determine because Merck & Co.
has not released all of the data that were collected in the study, known
by its acronym APPROVe (Adenomatous Polyp PRevention on Vioxx).
Merck disputes the new claims and disagrees with the interpretation. The
company says that their APPROVe data show that cardiovascular problems
occurred in patients who took Vioxx longer than 18 months.
Neel says there are several conditions that have been associated with
Vioxx use. These problems include serious strokes, so-called "ministrokes"
(also known as transient ischemic attacks), heart attacks, angina,
congestive heart failure, coronary artery disease, phlebitis and other
serious blockages of veins.
Dan Wilson
Best Syndication
Books on Heart Disease
Keywords and misspellings:
coranary
micro-vascular disfunction
iscemic iskemic
ishcemic ishcemia angiograf blood presure
stroke embolism imbolism embilism embelism bloode clot
