At usual therapeutic doses (blood levels), expected effects of aspirin include which of the following?
Aspirin inhibits synthesis of prostaglandins that are impoant in the pathophysiology, signs, and symptoms of a host of inflammatory or ahritic states. It does so, of course, by inhibiting both COX-I and -2. Acetaminophen lacks this propey, and so acetaminophen is much less efficacious for managing inflammation. Aspirin and acetaminophen are equally efficacious (and, for all practical purposes, equipotent) for relieving the simple headache for most patients. (Note, however, when pain involves a component of inflammation, aspirin is clearly superior to acetaminophen because it suppresses both the inflammation and the pain caused by it.) Aspirin usually helps normalize or lower body temperature in febrile states, but this, too, involves inhibited synthesis of prostaglandins (peripherally perhaps, leading to increased heat loss through diaphoresis, but also in such central structures as the hypothalamus, which is a prime temperature regulating structure). Aspirin does not exe bacteriostatic or bactericidal effects (at any level encountered in vivo), and so antibiotic effects do not contribute to its antipyretic actions. Although aspirin is an effective cyclooxygenase inhibitor, it has no effects on the lipoxygenase pathway that leads to leukotriene synthesis. It does not affect uric acid synthesis (xanthine oxidase) at all. Ref: KD Tripathi 8th ed.
Efficacy greater than acetaminophen as an anti-inflammatory agent
Efficacy less than acetaminophen for relieving simple headache pain
Inhibited growth, or killing, of bacteria that cause fever as a symptom of infection
Inhibition of leukotriene synthesis, protection against bronchopasm in asthmatics
Autacoids