4/13/2023 0 Comments Antidote coumadinAs you might guess, thinning the blood can increase the risk of patients’ tendency to bleed and warfarin requires frequent monitoring to ensure that patients are getting the proper dose. Warfarin works by reducing the body’s ability to make vitamin K, which interferes with the liver’s ability to make blood-clotting proteins. The widely used anticoagulant, or “blood thinner” Coumadin (warfarin) has been the long-term standard treatment to prevent clots from forming in the left atrium. Thus achieving the right balance of the risk of stroke versus serious bleeding is the goal. However, clotting in the heart is a bad thing as it can lead to a stroke. Of course, under normal circumstances, blood clotting is a good thing, because it stops bleeding if we are injured. However, most patients with atrial fibrillation do require more than just aspirin and that is where anticoagulants are needed to reduce the risk of stroke. In patients less than 65 years of age with no diabetes, high blood pressure, history of stroke or significant structural heart disease, often aspirin alone suffices. Thus methods to thin the blood can reduce the risk of stroke. In patients with atrial fibrillation, the older someone is or the more abnormal heart function is, the higher the risk of clots forming is. When the atria fibrillate, blood stagnates and clots can form and sail in the blood stream from the heart to arteries in the brain, blocking them and causing a stroke. It interferes with the orderly contraction of the atria or upper chambers of the heart. New Alternatives to Coumadin (warfarin) to Reduce the Risk of Stroke in the Treatment of Atrial Fibrillation Provide Doctors and Their Patients with More Options.Ītrial fibrillation is a heart rhythm disturbance that affects up to 3% of the adult population but is found more frequently as people age.
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