Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Optimal Warfarin Dosing Improves Anticoagulation Control

From the Washington Post:
While the anticoagulant warfarin can be highly effective in preventing strokes and treating venous thromboembolism, doctors have long struggled with finding the best way manage the drug therapy.

Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) researchers now claim to have figured out the optimal dosing levels to help patients, according to a study published in December online issue of the Journal of Thrombosis and Haemostasis.

The research team analyzed warfarin use in almost 4,000 patients to determine what are the most effective levels of the drug in a patient's system under different circumstances.

"The study suggests that anticoagulation control could be improved considerably by changing the warfarin dose only when the ratio is 1.7 or lower/3.3 or higher," lead author Dr. Adam Rose, an assistant professor of medicine at BUSM, said in a university news release. "In addition to offering warfarin to as many optimal candidates as possible, we also need to optimize warfarin dose management to fully realize the benefits of anticoagulation." ..more

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