Increased Risk of Stroke Associated With Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs. A Nationwide Case–Crossover Study

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Background and Purpose—Limited studies assessed cerebrovascular safety of individual nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). We evaluated the risk of ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke associated with short-term use of selective and nonselective NSAIDs in a Chinese population with a high incidence of stroke.

Methods—A retrospective case–crossover study was conducted by analyzing the Taiwan National Health Insurance Database. We identified all ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke patients in 2006, aged 20 years, based on International Classification of Diseases, 9th Revision, Clinical Modification diagnosis codes from inpatient claims and defined the index date as the date of hospitalization. For each patient, we defined case period as 1 to 30 days before the index date and control period as 91 to 120 days before the index date. A pharmacy prescription database was searched for NSAID use during the case and control periods. We calculated adjusted ORs and their 95% CIs with a conditional logistic regression model.

Results—A total of 28 424 patients with ischemic stroke and 9456 patients with hemorrhagic stroke were included. For ischemic stroke, a modest increased risk was evident for all oral NSAIDs with adjusted ORs (95% CI) ranging from1.20 (1.00 to 1.44) for celecoxib to 1.90 (1.39 to 2.60) for ketorolac. For hemorrhagic stroke, oral ketorolac was associated with a significantly higher risk with OR of 2.69 (1.56 to 4.66). Significantly increased risk was found for parenteral NSAIDs, in particular ketorolac, with an OR of 3.92 (3.25 to 4.72) for ischemic stroke and 5.98 (4.40 to 8.13) for hemorrhagic stroke.

Conclusions—Use of selective and nonselective NSAIDs was associated with an increased risk of both ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke, strikingly high for parenteral ketorolac.