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Fewer than 1 in 5 patients receive treatment to prevent life-threatening blood clots
Fewer than 1 in 5 patients received post-discharge therapy to prevent life-threatening blood clots — venous thrombosis — after hip- or knee-replacement surgery, report Rahme and colleagues in a retrospective cohort study. Venous thrombosis is one of the leading causes of death among hospital patients. However, elderly patients have a 70% lower chance of dying within 3 months if they take an anticoagulant drug to prevent blood clots.
Landmark study reveals superiority of bivalirudin in heart attack patients at 30 days
The Cardiovascular Research Foundation (CRF) announced today that the New England Journal of Medicine published results of the HORIZONS AMI trial which showed the use of the anticoagulant bivalirudin following angioplasty in heart attack patients reduced net adverse clinical events by 24 percent compared to the standard treatment, as well as reduced the risk of overall mortality by 33 percent and cardiac mortality by 38 percent.
Are blood thinners post-op killers?
Current US guidelines for the prescription of potent anticoagulants by surgeons who perform joint replacement operations could be doing patients more harm than good, according to Dr. Nigel Sharrock and his team from the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York. They argue for a revision of the American College of Chest Physicians’ guidelines, in light of their review showing that the use of powerful anticoagulants to prevent pulmonary embolism may actually lead to more deaths among patients who take these drugs. The paper was published in the March issue of Springer’s journal
Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research.
Researchers create new synthetic heparin
Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have patented a synthetic version of the drug heparin, called Recomparin, that is less complex chemically and should be easier to produce than previous forms.
Blood-Compatible Nanoscale Materials Possible Using Heparin
Researchers from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have engineered nanoscale materials that are blood compatible using heparin, an anticoagulant. The heparin biomaterials have potential for use as medical devices and in medical treatments such as kidney dialysis.
FDA posts list of potential problem drugs
(AP) -- The government on Friday began posting a list of prescription drugs under investigation for potential safety problems, in an effort to better inform doctors and patients.
Chemists move closer toward developing safer, fully-synthetic form of heparin
Chemists are reporting a major advance toward developing a safer, fully-synthetic version of heparin, the widely used blood thinner now produced from pig intestines. The U. S. Food and Drug Administration last spring linked contaminated batches of the animal-based product, imported from China, to more than 80 deaths and hundreds of allergic reactions among patients exposed to the drug for kidney dialysis and other conditions.
Boosting survival of insulin-cell transplants for Type 1 Diabetes
Researchers in Japan are reporting a discovery that could improve the effectiveness and expand the use of transplants of insulin-producing cells to treat diabetes. Their study is scheduled for the July 16 issue of ACS'
Bioconjugate Chemistry. Insulin-dependent, or Type 1, diabetes affects about 800,000 people in the United States.
