Evidence suggests dabigatran is an effective and safe treatment for patients with VTE requiring early parenteral therapy

Commentary on: Schulman S, Kakkar AK, Goldhaber SZ, et al.. Treatment of acute venous thromboembolism with dabigatran or warfarin and pooled analysis. Circulation 2014;129:764–72. Context Until recently, an initial course of parenteral anticoagulation followed by vitamin K antagonist (VKA) was the standard of care for the treatment of venous thromboembolism (VTE). In the past few years, direct oral anticoagulants (DOAC) have been found to be non-inferior to VKA.1–3 The RE-COVER study found dabigatran to be non-inferior to warfarin, with a reduced risk for clinically relevant bleeding.4 In order to confirm these findings, the RE-COVER II trial was performed and the results of both studies pooled. Methods Almost identical to the RE-COVER study, RE-COVER II was a randomised, double-blind, double-dummy trial. It enrolled 2589 patients with acute, proximal deep vein thrombosis (DVT) or pulmonary embolism. Exclusion criteria included haemodynamic instability, thrombolytic therapy, recent unstable cardiovascular disease,...
Source: Evidence-Based Medicine - Category: Internal Medicine Authors: Tags: Drugs: cardiovascular system, Stroke, Venous thromboembolism, Radiology, Pulmonary embolism, Clinical diagnostic tests Therapeutics Source Type: research