New Blood Thinner Pill For Patients With Deep Vein Thrombosis

New Blood Thinner Pill For Patients With Deep Vein Thrombosis.
A experimental anti-clotting pill, rivaroxaban (Xarelto), may be an effective, within and safer healing for patients coping with deep-vein thrombosis (DVT), a pair of new studies indicate. According to the research, published online Dec 4, 2010 in the New England Journal of Medicine, the deaden could sell a new option for these potentially life-threatening clots, which most typically mode in the lower leg or thigh. The findings are also slated for presentation Saturday at the annual joining of the American Society of Hematology (ASH), in Orlando, Fla.

And "These study outcomes may maybe change the way that patients with DVT are treated," study author Dr Harry R Buller, a professor of prescription at the Academic Medical Center at the University of Amsterdam, said in an ASH announcement release. "This new treatment regimen of oral rivaroxaban can potentially come to blood clot therapy easier than the current standard treatment for both the patient and the physician, with a single-drug and honest fixed-dose approach".

Another heart expert agreed. "Rivaroxiban is at least as effective as the older treat warfarin and seems safer. It is also far easier to use since it does not require blood testing to mediate the dose," said cardiologist Dr Alan Kadish, currently president of Touro College in New York City.

The about was funded in part by Bayer Schering Pharma, which markets rivaroxaban maximum the United States. Funding also came from Ortho-McNeil, which will market the drug in the United States should it pick up US Food and Drug Administration approval. In March 2009, an FDA admonitory panel recommended the drug be approved, but agency review is ongoing pending further study.

The authors note that upwards of 2 million Americans wisdom a DVT each year. These lap clots - sometimes called "economy flight syndrome" since they've been associated with the immobilization of large flights - can migrate to the lungs to form potentially deadly pulmonary embolisms. The in vogue standard of care typically involves treatment with relatively well-known anti-coagulant medications, such as the viva voce medication warfarin (Coumadin) and/or the injected medication heparin.

While effective, in some patients these drugs can stir unstable responses, as well as problematic interactions with other medications. For warfarin in particular, the possibility also exists for the development of severe and life-threatening bleeding. Use of these drugs, therefore, requires consuming and continuous monitoring. The search for a safer and easier to administer curing option led Buller's team to analyze two sets of data: One that corroded rivaroxaban against the standard anti-clotting drug enoxaparin (a heparin-type medication), and the second which compared rivaroxaban with a placebo.

In the foremost instance, about 1700 DVT patients were given rivaroxaban, while a similar covey received enoxaparin, for a period of up to a year. In the second investigation, about 600 DVT patients who had completed at least six months of the fundamental trial (on either medication) were randomly chosen to hold rivaroxaban, while a similar number of patients were given a placebo.

The authors observed that fewer cases of clotting took arrange among the rivaroxaban group compared with those taking enoxaparin (2,1 percent vs 3 percent, respectively). Major bleeding was also degree less common among the past than the latter.

The new medication also significantly outperformed the placebo, with just over 1 percent of rivaroxaban patients experiencing clotting problems compared with more than 7 percent in the placebo group. Although bleeding issues were more customary to each rivaroxaban patients than among those taking a placebo, the research team determined that the uncharted treatment option is both safe and effective for the treatment of DVT.

Dr Murray A Mittleman, steersman of the Cardiovascular Epidemiology Research Unit at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center at Harvard Medical School in Boston, said pronouncement alternate treatments for DVT could be an "important advancement," even though rivaroxaban is probable to be a more expensive option. "The problem with current treatments is not cost," he noted, "in the have a funny feeling that that warfarin, for example, has been around for a very long time and is very cheap. It's more a question of the of consequence complications that come with current treatments, which means they require sometimes cumbersome and frequent monitoring, as well as dosage adjustments".

Kadish agreed. "While the rate of rivaroxiban is significant, the absence of monitoring costs, reduced patch away from work since blood test are not required and the lower bleeding rate all serve to mitigate the set differential relative to warfarin," he said.

So "Also, DVT affects a broad age file of patients," Mittleman noted. "And that means that the risk for bleeding with current treatments can impact the lifestyles of adolescent active people who are often advised to avoid activities that might prompt complications. So, it's a quality-of-life conclusion as well wheretobuyrx. So absolutely, a new, good treatment that would be safer and at least as outstanding would be very useful".