Low-dose acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) has been widely used for prevention of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events. Several studies have shown that mucosal breaks caused by taking low-dose ASA occurred not only in the upper gastrointestinal tract but also in the lower gastrointestinal tract. However the cause of small bowel injury is not clear. One of the mechanisms of drug-induced small bowel damage is decrease in blood flow.
A research article to be published on January 14, 2011 in the World Journal of Gastroenterology addresses this question. The authors investigated the relationship between low-dose ASA-induced small bowel mucosal damage and small bowel blood flow, and also evaluated the preventive effect of rebamipide against small bowel damage and the effect of rebamipide on blood flow.
The results indicated that low-dose ASA-induced decrease in small bowel blood flow is correlated with small-bowel mucosal injury. Rebamipide does not decrease small bowel blood flow.
This study may represent a future strategy for therapeutic intervention in the treatment of patients with low-dose aspirin-induced small bowel mucosal damage.
Reference: Nishida U, Kato M, Nishida M, Kamada G, Yoshida T, Ono S, Shimizu Y, Asaka M. Evaluation of small bowel blood flow in healthy subjects receiving low-dose aspirin. World J Gastroenterol 2011; 17(2): 226-230
http://www.wjgnet.com/1007-9327/full/v17/i2/226.htm
Correspondence to: Mototsugu Kato, MD, PhD, Division of Endoscopy, Hokkaido University Hospital, North 14, West 5, Kita-ku, Sapporo, Hokkaido, 060-8648, Japan. [email protected]
Telephone: +81-11-7161161 Fax: +81-11-7067867
About World Journal of Gastroenterology
World Journal of Gastroenterology (WJG), a leading international journal in gastroenterology and hepatology, has established a reputation for publishing first class research on esophageal cancer, gastric cancer, liver cancer, viral hepatitis, colorectal cancer, and H pylori infection and provides a forum for both clinicians and scientists. WJG has been indexed and abstracted in Current Contents/Clinical Medicine, Science Citation Index Expanded (also known as SciSearch) and Journal Citation Reports/Science Edition, Index Medicus, MEDLINE and PubMed, Chemical Abstracts, EMBASE/Excerpta Medica, Abstracts Journals, Nature Clinical Practice Gastroenterology and Hepatology, CAB Abstracts and Global Health. ISI JCR 2009 IF: 2.092. WJG is a weekly journal published by WJG Press. The publication dates are the 7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th day of every month. WJG is supported by The National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 30224801 and No. 30424812, and was founded with the name of China National Journal of New Gastroenterology on October 1, 1995, and renamed WJG on January 25, 1998.