[Gastrointestinal tolerance of 30 mg versus 300 mg acetylsalicylic acid daily. An endoscopically controlled double-blind study of healthy subjects].

Acetylsalicylic acid (ASS) is increasingly used in the prevention of cardiovascular diseases. In recent years daily ASS-doses (100 to 300 mg) have been given for this indication. Studies with still lower ASS-doses (f. i. 30 mg daily) are the focus of ongoing clinical trials. In a randomized double-blind study we have evaluated the gastroduodenal tolerability of 30 mg ASS and 300 mg ASS daily in 20 healthy volunteers using upper GI-endoscopy. Both ASS-dosages have been taken for a period of four weeks. Endoscopic controls were performed at entry and repeated after seven, 14 and 28 days of treatment. 30 mg ASS daily did not induce significant gastroduodenal damages during the whole treatment period in contrast to 300 mg ASS daily (p less than 0.05). The lesions score under 300 mg ASS on day 7 and 28 was almost identical. Our data suggest that extremely low doses of ASS are almost harmless to the human gastroduodenal mucosa. No adaptive phenomena occur during a 28 days treatment with 300 mg ASS daily.