Can an anticoagulant reduce brain hemorrhage: Invited comment on “Dabigatran reduces endothelial permeability through inhibition of thrombin-induced cytoskeleton reorganization”

During studies of anti-coagulants to prevent cardioembolic stroke, startling data emerged that patients treated with novel oral anti-coagulants (NOACs) appeared to suffer less brain hemorrhage than patients treated with traditional, vitamin-K depleting anticoagulants [1, 2]. That NOACs reduced the bleeding risk did not fit accepted dogma: clinicians imagine that hemorrhage occurs during and following ischemic stroke as the brain undergoes necrosis. In the presence of anti-coagulation, such necrotic bleeding ought to be augmented.
Source: Thrombosis Research - Category: Hematology Authors: Tags: Editorial Source Type: research