At the end of May this year the Rheumatology Associations of Australia and New Zealand hosted a combined scientific conference in Christchurch, New Zealand. Notable among the presentations was a retrospective observational study on the association between gastrointestinal (GIT) bleeding and the use of aspirin, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), or cyclo-oxygenase II (COX-II) inhibitors (Box 1). The essential finding of the study was that among 20 patients with bleeding related to peptic ulcer or oesophagitis, six were taking low-dose aspirin, four were taking COX-II inhibitors and one an NSAID. The researchers concluded "that aspirin is still more commonly associated with GIT bleeding than conventional NSAIDs and COX-II inhibitors".
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