Objectives: The cardiovascular and bleeding outcomes of antiplatelet therapy continuation in older hypertensive adults with peptic ulcer disease (PUD) are uncertain. We aimed to investigate the appropriateness of maintaining antiplatelet therapy in older hypertensive aspirin users with PUD by determining the risks of major adverse cardiac events (MACEs) and hospitalizations for upper gastrointestinal bleeding (hUGIBs).
Methods: This multicenter cohort study screened patients with panendoscopy-proven PUD and hypertension aged 65 years or older between 2014 and 2018. Subsequent antiplatelet strategies were categorized as aspirin discontinuation (AD), aspirin continuation (AC), and switch to clopidogrel (SC) groups. Inverse probability of treatment weighting was applied. The main outcomes were incident MACEs and hUGIBs, followed through 31 December 2020.
Results: 735 eligible patients were analyzed. During a median follow-up of 39.7 months, 140 MACEs occurred. Compared with AD, AC increased the risk of incident MACEs (adjusted HR 1.58, 95% CI 1.04-2.38) in secondary prevention patients. On the other hand, 102 hUGIBs occurred during a median follow-up of 43.4 months. Compared with AD, neither AC nor SC affected the risk of hUGIBs in secondary prevention patients. However, secondary prevention patients with chronic kidney disease were at increased risk of hUGIBs (adjusted HR 2.41, 95% CI 1.30-4.47).
Conclusions: AC did not reduce MACEs in older hypertensive adults with PUD previously taking aspirin for secondary prevention. We do not advocate continuing antiplatelet therapy in older hypertensive adults once with PUD, despite its neutral association with hUGIBs.