BACKGROUND Venous thromboembolic disease (TED), although very rare, is a major cause of maternal mortality and morbidity, hence methods of prophylaxis are often used for women at risk. This may include women delivered by caesarean section, those with a personal or family history of TED and women with inherited or acquired thrombophilias (conditions that predispose people to thrombosis). Many me...

Nurses face challenges in all aspects of their practice, especially with administering and monitoring drugs in a safe, effective manner. Key factors known to affect drug administration include general drug knowledge, formal nurse education, continuing education needs, clinical experience, and the nationwide nursing shortage. Other factors are advances in technologic aids and quality improvement...

BACKGROUND The development of thrombocytopenia in acute coronary syndromes (ACS) appears to be associated with adverse clinical outcomes. Unfractionated heparin is a recognized cause of thrombocytopenia, but the incidence, predictors, and prognostic significance of thrombocytopenia during hirudin therapy in ACS have not been reported. METHODS AND RESULTS Patients with ACS without ST elevation...

Fat necrosis of the breast is a well-recognised complication of unfractionated heparin. The following is a case of fat necrosis due to low-molecular-weight heparin in a 91-year-old woman admitted to hospital with unstable angina.

BACKGROUND Activated clotting time (ACT) is widely used to guide unfractionated heparin dosing during percutaneous coronary intervention. However, its value in predicting complications is controversial in the modern era. We sought to examine the relationship between ACT and outcomes in non-ST-segment-elevation acute coronary syndrome patients. METHODS AND RESULTS In the Fondaparinux With Unfr...

BACKGROUND Low-molecular-weight heparins are effective for treating venous thrombosis, but their cost-effectiveness has not been rigorously assessed. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the cost-effectiveness of low-molecular-weight heparins compared with unfractionated heparin for treatment of acute deep venous thrombosis. DESIGN Decision model. DATA SOURCES Probabilities for clinical outcomes were ob...

OBJECTIVE Histones are detrimental in late sepsis. Both activated protein C (aPC) and heparin can reverse their effect. Here, we investigated whether histones can modulate aPC generation in a manner similar to another positively charged molecule, platelet factor 4, and how heparinoids (unfractionated heparin or oxygen-desulfated unfractionated heparin with marked decrease anticoagulant activity...

BACKGROUND Sepsis and septic shock represent a systemic inflammatory state with substantial pro-coagulant elements. Unfractionated heparin is a known anticoagulant, which also possesses anti-inflammatory properties. Unfractionated heparin has been shown to increase survival in experimental models of septic shock. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the impact of intravenous therapeutic dose unfractionated ...

The effect of various well-characterized heparin preparations on the inactivation of human Factor XIa by human antithrombin III was studied. The heparin preparations used were unfractionated heparin and four heparin fractions obtained after anion-exchange chromatography. Inactivation of Factor XIa was monitored with S2366 as chromogenic substrate and followed pseudo-first-order reaction kinetic...