Thursday, December 26, 2013

Could warfarin temporarily raise stroke risks?

Warfarin might be phased out for many patients - maybe - with some unpleasant or worse side effects. And perhaps that is a good thing. From a few days ago, here's a snippet  of a story titled "Start Warfarin, Have a Stroke?":
Starting warfarin for preventing stroke in patients with atrial fibrillation appeared to be associated with a transiently increased risk of ischemic stroke before the preventive effects kicked in, a large case-control study showed.
Compared with not taking any antithrombotics, initiating warfarin was associated with a greater risk of ischemic stroke in the first 30 days ... , with a peak at 3 days, according to Samy Suissa, PhD, of McGill University in Montreal, and colleagues.
But after that, the well-known stroke-cutting effects were seen ... .
I've always been told that warfarin takes three days to take effect, which fits at least part of the story. Click on the story link to read more.

No comments: