The incidences of fatal pulmonary embolism and death in surgical patients receiving low-molecular-weight heparin thromboprophylaxis have not been previously determined in large, adequately designed clinical trials and information on the relative efficacy and safety of unfractionated and low-molecular-weight heparin in preventing these clinical endpoints is not available. In a double-blind study...

In the ascidian Styela plicata, the oocytes are surrounded by two types of accessory cells named follicle cells and test cells. A heparin-like substance with an anticoagulant activity equivalent to 10% of mammalian heparin and about 5% as potent as the mammalian counterpart for the inhibition of thrombin by antithrombin was isolated from the oocyte test cells. In the present study, we compared ...

PURPOSE Preterm infants on parenteral nutrition are at a relatively high risk for hypertriglyceridemia because they have immature lipoprotein lipase activity. The purpose of this study was to analyze the clinical factors affecting lipid metabolism in preterm infants receiving parenteral nutrition and to evaluate the influence of intravenous heparin on serum triglycerides to determine the adequa...

The seven reviews and the eleven articles in this special issue provide an updated survey of recent research and developments in the ever-growing field of heparin, along with low molecular weight heparins (LMWHs) and glycosaminoglycans (GAGs).

Background The National Patient Safety Agency issued a rapid response report in July 2010 aimed at reducing treatment dose errors with low molecular weight heparins (LMWHs) (1). This states: “incident reports indicate patients renal function is often not taken into consideration when prescribing treatment doses of LMWHs. Not considering renal function was the leading causes of error resulting i...

The use of low molecular weight heparins (LMWH) in obstetric care has grown considerably since their introduction into clinical practice in the early 1990s. However, because of the physiological changes of pregnancy, the predictable pharmacokinetic profile of LMWH is lost and some uncertainty exists around the optimal dosing regimen for LMWH in obstetric care. Two recent United Kingdom prospect...

Heparin is commonly used for prevention or treatment of cancer-associated thromboembolism. Recent clinical evidence indicates that heparin, and low-molecular weight heparin improves survival of cancer patients. Experimental evidence from various animal models consistently supports the ability of heparin to attenuate metastasis. Heparin, apart from its anticoagulant activity contains a variety o...

Inhaled heparin has been shown to inhibit allergic bronchoconstriction in sheep that develop only acute responses to antigen (acute responders) but was ineffective in sheep that develop both acute and late airway responses (LAR) (dual responders). Because the antiallergic activity of heparin is molecular-weight dependent, we hypothesized that heparin-derived oligosaccharides (<2, 500) with pote...

Heparin and low-molecular-weight heparin (LMWH) are commonly monitored by determination of activated clotting times or chromogenic assays. Despite their wide use, these assays determine the biological activity and not the concentration of the anticoagulants. They may be inaccurate in some circumstances such as certain disease states. In addition, there is a significant interest in alternative t...

OBJECTIVE To compare the cost effectiveness of prophylaxis with a low-molecular-weight heparin with that of prophylaxis with unfractionated heparin for the prevention of venous thromboembolism in acutely ill medical inpatients. STUDY DESIGN Cost-effectiveness analysis based on decision-tree model. PARTICIPANTS AND METHODS A hypothetical cohort of 10 000 patients was assumed to receive eithe...