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Aspirin may help prevent heart disease in more ways than was thought, according to a study released yesterday in the journal Circulation.

People originally took aspirin for pain and inflammation. But in recent years a small, a regular dose of aspirin has been recommended to many people because of the discovery that it also reduces blood clotting, cutting the risk of a heart attack.

The new study, conducted by Dr. Patrick Vallance of the University College London, also found heart health benefits in aspirin's anti-inflammatory properties. In earlier experiments, he confirmed speculation that an inflammation — even those as mild as ones associated with colds — could interfere with the circulatory system.

In the new experiment, Dr. Vallance and his colleagues created an inflammation in the forearms of 17 healthy volunteers by giving them shots of typhoid vaccine. Six of them were given aspirin two hours before the shots, six were given placebos and five were given aspirin after the shot.

The subjects given aspirin ahead of time showed no sign of inflammation afterward. More important, they were the only group whose blood vessels adjusted normally to the need to increase blood flow — an important measure of cardiac health, Dr. Vallance said. He said it was possible that aspirin could reduce the heart risks from events like abdominal surgery, which produces inflammation.

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