Montana News: Damaged Veins Heal Faster with Heparin Treatment

April 1, 2008 4:36 pm

Reprinted form the April 2008 Montana Board of Pharmacy Newsletter.
 

 A commonly used medication that prevents blood clots from forming may also prevent existing clots from damaging delicate vein walls – and may accelerate healing in a clot-damaged area of vein wall, according to new research from the University of Michigan Cardiovascular Center. The findings, made in laboratory mice, add more evidence to support the aggressive anti-clot efforts now under way at American hospitals and nursing homes. Those efforts are aimed at preventing many of the 300,000 deaths that occur each year when clots break free of vein walls and travel to the lungs.

The new study, published in the March issue of the Journal of Vascular Surgery, looked at the impact of low-molecular weight heparin, or LMWH, a form of anti-clotting medication that is often given to hospitalized patients. It is different from the unfractionated form of heparin that has recently been the subject of safety concerns. While the new results can not immediately be translated into human patients, they do help illuminate the process by which LMWH works – including the potential advantages of pretreatment in at-risk patients, or early treatment of patients in whom a DVT has formed.

Source: University of Michigan Health System