Long-term Anticoagulant Treatment in Ischemic Heart Disease : Symposium on Coronary Heart Diseases and Anticoagulants

Abstract

The effect of long-term anticoagulant treatment on the subsequent course of patients with myocardial infarction, angina pectoris and cerebrovascular disease was investigated, but the number of patients examined has not been sufficiently large to allow statistically reliable conclusions to be drawn. 30.5% of 92 cases were marked by hemorrhagic complications. The majority of the hemorrhagic complications on long-term anticoagulant therapy occurred while the patients' prothrombin activities were maintained in the so-called therapeutic range. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a new test of an entirely adequate measurement of the patients' bleeding propensities before long-term anticoagulant therapy is generally accepted for ischemic heart diseases. There were 3 patients with a recurrence of thromboembolic diseases within 3 weeks after the discontinuation of anticoagulant therapy.