Cigarette smoking inhibits the anti-platelet activity of aspirin in patients with coronary heart disease.

Objective: Tobacco smoking results in increased platelet aggregability, which suggests that low-dose aspirin used in common clinical practice may not effectively inhibit platelet activity in smokers with coronary heart disease (CHD). This review was performed to assess the effect of aspirin on platelet aggregation in patients with CHD.

Data Sources: We performed an electronic literature search of MEDLINE (starting from the beginning to March 15, 2009) using the term "smoking" or "tobacco" paired with the following: "platelet", "aspirin" or "coronary heart disease".