Thrombosis, the localized clotting of blood, occurs in both the arterial and venous circulation, and has a major impact on health outcomes. The primary etiology of myocardial infarctions, and approximately 80% of strokes, is acute arterial thrombosis. In combination this represents the most common cause of death in the Western world, while the third leading cause of cardiovascular-associated de...

Historically, vitamin K antagonists have been the only class of oral anticoagulants available. Despite our experience with warfarin over the past 60 years, its use is associated with several pharmacokinetic and clinical disadvantages including unpredictable dosing, frequent monitoring, and delayed onset and offset. Edoxaban, an oral direct Xa inhibitor, may provide clinicians with an additional...

Venous thromboembolism is a rising concern in Asia especially among patients after surgery where this complication is readily preventable. Despite the availability of several treatment options, the acceptance of prophylaxis and usage of these methods remain low. A possible explanation to this behavior is the limitations attached to the available treatment options: narrow therapeutic window of w...

Purpose Circulating tissue factor (TF) has been studied as a biomarker for predicting initial, but not recurrent, venous thromboembolism (VTE) in cancer, a setting in which predictors are incompletely understood. We evaluated the association of TF, clinical risk factors, and other biomarkers measured at the time of initial VTE with recurrent VTE in a prespecified analysis of the CATCH (Comparis...

Edoxaban is the fourth non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulant now available for clinical use in the prevention of stroke/systemic embolism in atrial fibrillation (AF) and in the treatment of venous thromboembolism (VTE), after the completion of large-scale randomized comparative clinical trials with the vitamin K antagonist warfarin. Edoxaban has some peculiar pharmacological properties an...

Venous thromboembolism refers to thrombotic events in the venous system that are most commonly manifested as deep vein thromboses in the upper or lower extremity and/or pulmonary embolism. Venous thromboembolism is a common disorder that is associated with significant mortality, morbidity and health care-related cost. An array of hereditary and acquired risk factors are associated with venous t...

parison, at data from an inception cohort, multicentre, Italian study published in 1996 in which about 35% of all the new patients starting anticoagulation and enrolled in the study were aged 70 years or more [1]. In 2006 the proportion of patients aged over 70 years among the almost 800 new patients referred to our outpatient anticoagulation clinic to start warfarin treatment for the first tim...

Case 1: A 79-year-old woman suffered idiopathic proximal right popliteal and calf deep vein thrombosis (DVT) 6 years previously. She had a normal hypercoagulability workup. Her warfarin has been managed successfully by a centralized pharmacist-run anticoagulation service, and she has easily achieved and maintained her target international normalized ratio range between 2.0 and 3.0. She has had ...

The Medical Journal of Australia ISSN: 0025729X 15 June 2009 190 12 659-660 ©The Medical Journal of Australia 2009 www.mja.com.au Editorials days with unfractionated heparin, low-molecular-wei fondaparinux, prevents thrombus progression and re of recurrent VTE and death during the acute ph treatment is continued beyond the acute phase, wa the risk of recurrent VTE but increases the risk of requ...

Atrial Fibrillation (AF) is an epidemic that is increasing in size and scope. AF can have many symptoms and cause a variety of negative health impacts.The most important health risk of AF is the increased risk of stroke and systemic thromboembolism.Oral anticoagulation with warfarin has been the gold standard for stroke risk reduction in AF, but new drugs and treatment strategies for AF are cha...