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Can Painkillers Be Taken While On Ecosprin And Acitrom?
Question: My mother (72 years, active lady but with pain in knees due to arthritis) had 3 minor strokes of left limbs and has recovered almost completely. She is on ecosprin 75 and acitrom 2 mg thrice and 1mg four times a week. Her INR is 1.13. Please advise if this requires any changes. Also, can she take painkillers for arthritis in this situation?
Brief Answer:
Some changes are needed.
Detailed Answer:
Hello and welcome to HealthcareMagic. I read your question carefully and I understand your concern.
I must say I am not happy with her medication and some change will be needed for sure.
First of all if the INR is 1.13 then she's obviously undermedicated with acitrom. In a person who takes an anticoagulant like acitrom the INR should between 2-3. With an INR of 1.13, it's as if she's not taking it at all, it's the value of a normal person who is not under treatment.
The second issue is the combination of aspirin (ecosprin) and acitrom, both blood thinners but with different mechanism of action, which is not very typical, usually it is either one or the other, it is in rare cases that a combination of the two is needed.
Now which one to choose, whether she should stay with ecosprin alone, with acitrom alone (but obviously increasing the dose to keep an INR of 2-3), or whether it is one of the rare cases when both can be taken, that depends on the cause of the stroke, of which you haven't provided any information for now.
If the stroke originated from the heart, from arrhythmia like atrial fibrillation then acitrom treatment is indicated.
If the cause was more related to damage of blood vessels from processes like atherosclerosis then ecosprin and a statin like atorvastatin might be enough.
There are of course many causes and subtypes, the above mentioned are two of the most common scenarios.
So you should provide some more information on what your doctors told you on the stroke type she had, heart problems, problems with blood vessels, conditions like high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol etc.
If you can't remember such info perhaps you can see the hospital discharge papers. If the papers are too complicated for you, you can scan/photograph them and upload them here in the reports section, I would happily review them for you and provide a more precise opinion.
As for the painkillers, most of them are non steroid antiinflammatory drugs like Ibuprofen, Naproxen, Diclofenac etc, which do have some blood thinning effect and should be very cautious as they increase the risk for hemorrhagic complications. There is acetaminophen which doesn't have that problem, but if acitrom is continued it does interact with acetaminophen, so caution is needed as well.
I remain at your disposal for further questions, possibly with some of the info above.
Some changes are needed.
Detailed Answer:
Hello and welcome to HealthcareMagic. I read your question carefully and I understand your concern.
I must say I am not happy with her medication and some change will be needed for sure.
First of all if the INR is 1.13 then she's obviously undermedicated with acitrom. In a person who takes an anticoagulant like acitrom the INR should between 2-3. With an INR of 1.13, it's as if she's not taking it at all, it's the value of a normal person who is not under treatment.
The second issue is the combination of aspirin (ecosprin) and acitrom, both blood thinners but with different mechanism of action, which is not very typical, usually it is either one or the other, it is in rare cases that a combination of the two is needed.
Now which one to choose, whether she should stay with ecosprin alone, with acitrom alone (but obviously increasing the dose to keep an INR of 2-3), or whether it is one of the rare cases when both can be taken, that depends on the cause of the stroke, of which you haven't provided any information for now.
If the stroke originated from the heart, from arrhythmia like atrial fibrillation then acitrom treatment is indicated.
If the cause was more related to damage of blood vessels from processes like atherosclerosis then ecosprin and a statin like atorvastatin might be enough.
There are of course many causes and subtypes, the above mentioned are two of the most common scenarios.
So you should provide some more information on what your doctors told you on the stroke type she had, heart problems, problems with blood vessels, conditions like high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol etc.
If you can't remember such info perhaps you can see the hospital discharge papers. If the papers are too complicated for you, you can scan/photograph them and upload them here in the reports section, I would happily review them for you and provide a more precise opinion.
As for the painkillers, most of them are non steroid antiinflammatory drugs like Ibuprofen, Naproxen, Diclofenac etc, which do have some blood thinning effect and should be very cautious as they increase the risk for hemorrhagic complications. There is acetaminophen which doesn't have that problem, but if acitrom is continued it does interact with acetaminophen, so caution is needed as well.
I remain at your disposal for further questions, possibly with some of the info above.
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Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar
Answered by
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