Blood-thinning Drug Linked to Heart Attack Risk?
~ The Rebel ~
2012/01/11 17:11:32
Taking the recently approved medicine dabigatran could mean a slightly higher risk compared with the drug warfarin, a study suggests.
When dabigatran was approved in 2010, it became the first new medication for blood-clot prevention in about 50 years. Sold under the brand name Pradaxa, dabigatran has been taken by an estimated 500,000 people to prevent blood clots that could cause stroke.
But the fanfare over dabigatran’s approval has been clouded somewhat by lingering questions over its effects on the heart. Several clinical trials showed a slightly increased risk of heart attacks in people who took the drug compared with people taking warfarin, but a reanalysis of the data at the request of the Food and Drug Administration concluded there was no statistically significant increased risk.
When dabigatran was approved in 2010, it became the first new medication for blood-clot prevention in about 50 years. Sold under the brand name Pradaxa, dabigatran has been taken by an estimated 500,000 people to prevent blood clots that could cause stroke.
But the fanfare over dabigatran’s approval has been clouded somewhat by lingering questions over its effects on the heart. Several clinical trials showed a slightly increased risk of heart attacks in people who took the drug compared with people taking warfarin, but a reanalysis of the data at the request of the Food and Drug Administration concluded there was no statistically significant increased risk.
Read More: http://bighealthreport.com/2573/blood-thinning-dru...
Coumadin is Rat Poison, and can be lethal in clinical doses. I am not fond of dabigatran either, but the reality is that all medicine has some risk attached. The bigger question is, what is more risky, to not take the blood thinner and thus have a risk of repaeted stroke or heart attack, or to take the blood thinner and have some other risk.