NSAIDs linked to heart problems in elderly -- Elderly patients who use nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) -- a class of drugs that includes aspirin, ibuprofen (Advil), and naproxen (Aleve) -- may be twice as likely to be hospitalized for heart failure as those who do not use NSAIDs, a new report suggests. The study also found that the risk of heart failure increased 10 times in elderly patients who had a history of heart disease and used NSAIDs. The findings do not apply to the low-dose aspirin (100 to 300 milligrams) taken daily by many people to reduce their risk of heart attack. And the study could not conclusively determine that the NSAIDs were indeed the cause of the heart failure. The investigators found that patients who used NSAIDs in the previous week were twice as likely to be hospitalized for heart failure as those who did not. For patients with a history of heart disease who used NSAIDs, the risk of a first admission for heart failure was more than 6 times that of elderly patients without a history of heart disease. It was also found that the more NSAIDs the patient had taken the previous week, the more likely it was that they would be hospitalized. If the NSAIDs did indeed cause the heart failure -- which could not be confirmed by this type of study -- about 19% of the hospital admissions for heart failure in this group might be attributed to use of NSAIDs, the researchers estimate. - Archives of Internal Medicine 2000, vol 160