Patients using warfarin for oral anticoagulant therapy need to be frequently monitored because of warfarin's narrow therapeutic range and the large variation in dose requirements among patients. Patients receiving the wrong dose have an increased risk of bleeding or thromboembolic events. The required dose is influenced by environmental factors, such as gender, age, diet and concomitant medicat...

Warfarin (Coumadin®) is one of the most widely prescribed anticoagulant drugs used to treat and prevent thrombosis in patients with cardiovascular or other thrombotic disorders (Keeling et al, 2011). Warfarin inhibits vitamin K epoxide reductase and decreases vitamin K hydroquinone to attenuate blood coagulation by inhibiting vitamin K-dependent posttranslational modifications of plasma coagula...

The development of novel oral anticoagulants that are effective alternatives to warfarin in non-valvular atrial fibrillation (AF) is a welcome advance. However, a variety of unresolved problems with their use, and not least with their cost, make it important to re-evaluate the use of warfarin as it will likely remain the anticoagulant of choice in South African patients with non-valvular AF for...

The aim of this study was to determine the association of bleeding as a complication of warfarin therapy with polymorphism of CYP2C9 gene (alleles 1, 2 and 3). The CYP2C9 is the main enzyme for warfarin metabolism. Study included 181 patients receiving warfarin for at least one month. Allele 1 of CYP2C9 gene (in 94.5%) and genotype *1/*1 (57.5%) prevailed. Allele 3 was found in 12.7% patients. ...

BACKGROUND Warfarin therapy is effective for the prevention of stroke in patients with atrial fibrillation. However, warfarin therapy is underutilized even among ideal anticoagulation candidates. The purpose of this study was to examine the use of warfarin in both inpatients and outpatients with atrial fibrillation within a Veterans Affairs (VA) hospital system. METHODS This retrospective med...

Increasing and inadvertent use of herbs makes herb-drug interactions a focus of research. Concomitant use of warfarin, a highly efficacious oral anticoagulant, and herbs causes major safety concerns due to the narrow therapeutic window of warfarin. This paper presents an update overview of clinical findings regarding herb-warfarin interaction, highlighting clinical outcomes, severity of documen...

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of early or delayed warfarin administration with unfractionated heparin (UFH) on coagulation parameters in pulmonary thromboembolism (PTE). PATIENTS AND METHODS This study was performed between November 2006 and July 2007. Thirty-three patients with PTE were sequentially slotted to early (n = 16) and delayed (n = 17) warfarin treat...

Objective: Association studies on the effects of GGCX gene polymorphisms on warfarin stable dose have shown conflicting results. The aim of this study is to quantitatively summarize whether GGCX gene polymorphisms have potential roles in warfarin dose requirement. Methods: Publications were searched in PubMed, Medline and ISI Web of Knowledge and chosen by exact inclusion and exclusion criteria...

CONTEXT Intravenous tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) is known to improve outcomes in ischemic stroke; however, patients receiving long-term chronic warfarin therapy may face an increased risk for intracranial hemorrhage when treated with tPA. Although current guidelines endorse administering intravenous tPA to warfarin-treated patients if their international normalized ratio (INR) is 1.7 or l...

BACKGROUND The direct thrombin inhibitor dabigatran etexilate (DE) may constitute a future replacement of vitamin K antagonists for long-term anticoagulation. Whereas warfarin pretreatment is associated with greater hematoma expansion after intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), it remains unclear what effect direct thrombin inhibitors would have. Using different experimental models of ICH, this study...