Long term effects of argipidine as an anticoagulant for hemodialysis

Abstract

A specific thrombin antagonist argipidine (A) has been examined as an anticoagulant for hemodialysis (HD) for 24 months in 12 regular HD patients. A showed similar anticoagulant activity to heparin, and several clinical advantages such as the prevention of antithrombin III consumption, improvement in lipid metabolism and so on were brought about by the use of A. Furthermore A was extremely effective to treat the patients with allergy to heparin. These results indicate that A is a very useful anticoagulant especially for the patients with hyperlipidemia and/or heparin allergy.