Word: warfarin
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...report published last week in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers revealed that daily doses of aspirin, or of a blood-thinning medication called warfarin, could sharply curtail the risk of stroke in patients suffering from atrial fibrillation, a condition in which the heartbeat is rapid and irregular. The 1 million Americans who have this abnormality face five times the normal risk of stroke. The study, which was to involve 1,244 patients over four years, found that the drugs could cut that risk so dramatically, by 80%, that research was halted after just two years so that...
...first the company stopped short of a recall, telling retailers only to stop selling the drugs until further notice and warning consumers against using any of the capsules purchased after March 15. At week's end, however, laboratory tests found nonlethal doses of warfarin, an anticoagulant used in rat poison, in two Contac and three Teldrin capsules. SmithKline was frightened into acting. Said Company President Henry Wendt: "Between his claims about cyanide and the findings of warfarin, we feel we didn't have a choice...
...program will admit 350 people, averaging 65 years of age, over the next three years. Half of the participants will receive warfarin with the remainder serving as a control group...
...Although warfarin seems to reduce the incidence of stroke in AF patients, Hughes said the risks for users are not to be dismissed...
...Anyone who goes on [warfarin] may have a hemorrhage," he said. The alternatives are between "suffering a stroke in the control group or possibly bleeding from warfarin, and it's difficult to predict the severity of either one," he added...