Blood thinner ups stroke risk in some kidney disease patients on dialysis.Byline: ANI Washington, Aug 28 (ANI): The blood thinner warfarin warfarin (wôr`fərĭn), anticoagulant used to treat blood clots. In large doses it causes bleeding. Warfarin, mixed with bait, is used in rodent control. warfarin Anticoagulant drug, marketed as Coumadin. should be prescribed with caution in some heart patients with kidney failure, say researchers who found that the drug was linked to an increased risk of stroke. Wafarin is prescribed to reduce the risk of strokes in people with atrial fibrillation, the most common type of abnormal heart rhythm. However, few studies have looked at whether warfarin also helps prevent strokes in atrial fibrillation patients who are on kidney dialysis. To find out, Kevin Chan, Michael Lazarus, Raymond Hakim (Fresenius Medical Care Fresenius Medical Care is a German company specializing in the production of medical supplies, primarily to facilitate or aid renal dialysis. It is 37%-owned by the health care company Fresenius SE. North America); and Ravi Thadhani, (Massachusetts General Hospital Massachusetts General Hospital Health care The major teaching hospital for Harvard Medical School, widely regarded as one of the best health care centers in the world ), studied 1,671 end stage renal disease (ESRD ESRD end-stage renal disease. ESRD End-stage renal disease; chronic or permanent kidney failure. Mentioned in: Dialysis, Kidney ESRD End-stage renal disease, see there ) patients with a diagnosis of atrial fibrillation who started dialysis in clinics operated by Fresenius Medical Care North America. Patients' health was monitored for an average of 1.6 years after dialysis was started. The researchers found that patients who took warfarin increased their risk of stroke; however, the increase in risk was related to the degree of blood thinning in response to the drug. Dialysis patients whose blood was not monitored for warfarin levels after they received the drug had the highest risk of stroke. Notably, clopidogrel and aspirin-two other types of blood thinners-did not increase dialysis patients' risk of stroke. The researchers say that additional research is needed to determine why warfain has the opposite effect on stroke risk in kidney disease patients on dialysis compared with other individuals. One possible explanation maybe because bleeding is a well-known complication of kidney failure and the concomitant use of blood thinners may exaggerate the risk of stroke from bleeding in the head. The study appears in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Society Nephrology nephrology Branch of medicine dealing with kidney function and diseases. An understanding of kidney physiology is important not only in treating kidney disease but in knowing the effect of drugs, diet, and hypertension on kidney disease, and vice versa. (JASN JASN Journal of the American Society of Nephrology ). (ANI) Copyright 2009 Asian News International The Asian News International (ANI) agency provides multimedia news to China and 50 bureaus in India. It covers virtually all of South Asia since its foundation and presently claims, on its official website, to be the leading South Asia-wide news agency. (ANI) - All Rights Reserved. Provided by Syndigate.info an Albawaba.com company |
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