This study aimed to investigate the potential link between NSAIDs (both COX-2 inhibitors and traditional nonselective NSAIDs) and heart failure in patients without a history of heart failure.
However, data from clinical trials have suggested that the prolong use of COX-2 inhibitors are also associated with life threatening cardiovascular side effects including ischemic heart failure and myocardial infection.
This may hold true for other systems because long term use of selective COX-2 inhibitors such as VIOXX and BEXTRA was associated with heart failure, leading to their withdrawal.
However, the simultaneous inhibition of COX-2 in the vasculature translates into a prothrombotic phenotype and promotes hypertension and heart failure.