A critical review is given of the tests available for the assessment of the action of anticoagulants, such as heparins, oral anticoagulants and direct thrombin inhibitors, in patients under antithrombotic therapy. The principle of action and the performance of the thromboplastin time (PT), the activated partial thromboplastin time (aPTT), the whole blood clotting time, the thrombin time, the ec...

The aim was to determine the validity of the international normalized ratio (INR) and prothrombin time (PT) as a monitor for warfarin therapy in patients with lupus anticoagulants and recurrent thrombosis, and to investigate alternative approaches to monitoring warfarin therapy and new treatment options in these patients. A case is described of a 63-year-old female with antiphospholipid syndrom...

CYP2C9 is involved in the metabolism of the oral anticoagulants warfarin, phenprocoumon, and acenocoumarol. It is also responsible for the 5'-hydroxylation of the nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug lornoxicam. Therefore, lornoxicam and the oral anticoagulants are potential inhibitors of their metabolism. Their inhibitory potency was investigated in microsomes from six human livers. An approach...

BACKGROUND The relative effectiveness of vitamin K antagonists compared with novel oral anticoagulants in treating pulmonary embolism remains unclear. Recent trials comparing the efficacy of vitamin K antagonists with factor Xa inhibitors for the treatment of pulmonary emboli have been non-inferiority studies based primarily on risk reduction (such as bleeding events), rather than resolution of...

Metastasis involves several distinct steps, including one in which the tumor cell, after entry into the bloodstream, comes to rest in a capillary located at the distant site where a metastatic tumor will ultimately form. Components of the blood-clotting pathway may contribute to metastasis by trapping cells in capillaries or by facilitating adherence of cells to capillary walls. Conceivably, an...

Second-generation anticoagulant rodenticides were introduced to control Norway rats that had become resistant to first-generation compounds. Unfortunately, some rats have become resistant to these as well. The lack of alternative rodenticides with the same attributes of ease of use and relative safety is potentially a serious problem should resistance become so widespread that anticoagulants ar...

ANTICOAGULANTS have been used clinically for the past 25 years, starting with the initial work of Murray anld Best,' and their use has inereased steadilv and continuously each year since that time. Fairly early. however, there were reports of spontaneous hemorrhage from the use of anticoagulants. With the introduction and widespread use of the indirect anticoagulants reports of hemorrhage incre...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE This study investigated the effect of preexisting antiplatelet therapy on mortality and functional outcome in patients with intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH). METHODS Our analysis was based on a large, country-wide stroke registry in Germany. All parameters relevant to this analysis, including age, prehospital status (according to the modified Rankin Scale, mRS), Internati...

BACKGROUND Osteonecrosis of the femoral head (ONFH) is a progressive disease, which mainly affects young adults and often necessitates total hip arthroplasty (THA), so early interventions are critical to successfully protect hip joint from THA. In this review, our purpose was to determine the effects of anticoagulants for preventing and treating the primary and secondary ONFH, respectively, bef...