Treatment of venous thromboembolism (VTE) usually starts with concomitant administration of heparin or low-molecular-weight heparin (LMWH) and a vitamin K antagonist. The parenteral anticoagulant, which is given for at least 5 days, is stopped once the vitamin K antagonist produces a therapeutic level of anticoagulation. Although the introduction of LMWH has simplified the initial treatment of ...

In a prospective double-blind trial, we treated 194 patients with acute venous thromboembolism with heparin or low molecular weight heparin (LMWH; Fragmin). To evaluate the most important prognostic factors for bleeding, the presenting clinical features of the patients, the patients' anticoagulant responses, and the doses of the drugs were analyzed using univariate and multivariate regression a...

Low molecular weight heparin (LMWH) is effective in the treatment of acute deep vein thrombosis (DVT) in adults. This has not been demonstrated for one LMWH alone. The relationship between venographic changes due to LMWH therapy and clinical outcome in the initial treatment period has not been reported. A pooled analysis of two clinical trials was performed. The trials compared a fixed-dose, bo...

Heparin has been used as a clinical anticoagulant for more than 50 years, making it one of the most effective pharmacological agents known. Much of heparin's activity can be traced to its ability to bind antithrombin III (AT-III). Low molecular weight heparin (LMWH), derived from heparin by its controlled breakdown, maintains much of the antithrombotic activity of heparin without many of the se...

Some or most of the turnover of lipoprotein lipase (LPL) occurs by dissociation from vascular endothelial sites in extrahepatic tissues and further degradation in the liver. Heparin greatly enhances this dissociation and delays but does not abolish uptake in the liver, raising the possibility that heparin could lead to accelerated catabolism of functional LPL. To investigate this, we determined...

Heparin rebound phenomenon was named to illustrate unstable angina pectoris (UAP) reactivation after stopping heparin. Reinfarction clustering, as well as sharp increase of both thrombin production and activity in the early hours after heparin abandoning have been described (after thrombolysis), which has been partially attributed to heparin rebound. The aim of the study was to show importance ...

Drug utilization evaluation (DUE) is an effective program to identify variability in drug use and to support interventions that will improve patient outcomes. The appropriate use of enoxaparin, a low molecular weight heparin (LMWH), which is widely used as curative or preventive treatment of thromboembolic disorders was assessed in the study. A prospective DUE was carried out at Masih Daneshvar...