Aspirin resistance and promoting blood circulation and removing blood stasis: current situation and prospectives.

Aspirin plays a crucial physiological and pathophysiological role in cardiovascular diseases and cerebrovascular diseases by irreversibly inhibiting thromboxane A2. However, some patients may be "resistant" to its effect. The resistance has close association with adverse cardiovascular outcomes and increased mortality, so that resolving the problem of aspirin resistance (AR) is widely concerned. By studying the correlation between AR and blood stasis syndrome (BSS), it is demonstrated that BSS may be one of the pathogenesis of AR in traditional Chinese medicine. Chinese herb and formulas definitely possess the advantage of whole body regulation by many ways and many targets. It is a new direction for treatment of AR to combine TCM and modern medicine to study the mechanism and prevention of AR.