New Thromboembolic Guidelines May Spark Controversy

From Medpage Today:
Most of the recommendations in the eighth edition of antithrombotic guidelines from the American College of Chest Physicians are only incrementally changed, but several are likely to be controversial, according to the authors.

The 2008 guidelines contain 179 new recommendations, as well as new chapters, to deal with areas of care that have seen significant development since the 2004 guidelines were issued, according to Jack Ansell, M.D., chief of medicine at Lennox Hill Hospital in New York and a member of the panel that developed the guidelines.

They are published as a 22-chapter supplement to the June issue of CHEST and are available online.

Dr. Ansell outlined several areas that are likely to be contentious. For instance, he said, "There has been a lot of buzz about the use of pharmacogenetics for drug dosing and warfarin (Coumadin) is one of the major candidates." ...more