Lower intensity anticoagulation therapy results in lower complication rates with the St. Jude Medical prosthesis

Lower anticoagulation for mechanical heart valves: Experience with the ATS bileaflet valve

“…The incidence of thromboembolism and haemorrhage for ATS valves, in our experience, seems to compare favourably to those reported in some other mechanical valve series. [12][13][14] Moreover, aortic valve patients, in general, carry more risk for anticoagulationrelated haemorrhage than thromboembolic events under 6 Our low intensive group 1 patients had few thromboembolic events despite some totally inadequate anticoagulation therapy (13% of patients were off anticoagulation for more than 1 year at follow up). Also anticoagulation-related haemorrhagic events occurred rarely in group 1 and no thrombosis has been found to date.…”

“…In fact, the work conducted by Horstkotte et al calculates the target therapeutic range with the lowest overall complication rate in aortic valve replacement with the St Jude valve at an INR between 2.2 and 3.5. 6 By retrospective analysis of all valve implants at our institution we found an overall higher incidence of haemorrhage compared to thromboembolism in our complete mechanical aortic replacement group. 7…”

“…Other causes of death in group 1 were cardiac, non-cardiac or cancer related. 2,3,6 In group 2, we reported no valve-related deaths and one sudden death. The most common origin of late death in group 2 was cardiac, as a result of progressive deterioration of poor preoperative left ventricular function (four patients).…”

Aortic Valve Replacement With the St. Jude Medical Prosthesis and Fixed Dose Anticoagulation

“…In the follow-up period, the mean PT was 14.35 k 4.56 sec (range 10.70-29.1 sec), and the INR was 1.52 f 1.56 (range 0.6-19.3). Horstkotte et al 16 have also reported that lowintensity anticoagulation results in a reduced complication rate. Maintaining the INR range between 2 and 3 leads to a statistically reduced rate of bleeding complications with no increased risk of thromboembolism.…”

A linear model for long‐term dosage of anticoagulant drugs

“…Prescription of anticoagulant drugs for "blood-thinning" is a widespread precaution for patients with high thrombosis risk like patients with an artificial heart-valve [1,3,4]. To achieve the target corridor for the concentration of the agent in the patient's blood, correct dosage of the orally taken drug is mandatory.…”