Blood Thinners: What’s the Latest Update?
Thinning the blood, or anticoagulation therapy, is a common treatment approach for patients with atrial fibrillation, deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolism, and heart attack. Blood thinners are generally prescribed once or twice daily. But what happens if one of these crucial drugs is taken incorrectly? And what about each drug’s side effects? How will this affect your health as a whole? The most important thing you can do is to keep up to date with the latest information from your doctor.
In this article, you’ll learn about blood thinners, like what it is, how dangerous blot clot is, and the latest update on blood thinners.
What’s In The Article?
What Are Blood Thinners?
How Dangerous Are Blood Clots?
What’s the Latest Update On Blood Thinners Medication?
Final Thoughts
What Are Blood Thinners?
Blood thinners are medications used to dissolve or prevent the formation of blood clots that can form in your arteries due to heart disease or atrial fibrillation.
Clots may travel and cause stroke, heart attack, and even death. Blood thinners are typically prescribed after a person has undergone surgery, or has suffered a heart attack and requires strict monitoring.
How Dangerous Are Blood Clots?
Blood clots can occur if you have certain medical conditions that affect how your blood reacts when an injury or a foreign body is present. They also can occur after certain surgeries. A blood clot can stop blood flow to the heart, lungs, brain, or other areas of the body. If a blood clot gets into your bloodstream and to your lungs, it can block blood flow to your lungs and cause a life-threatening condition called pulmonary embolism.
Blood clots typically occur when blood thickens, pools, and coagulates within a blood vessel. Blood clots can block blood flow to organs or other body parts. This can lead to serious medical problems, including:
Deep vein thrombosis (DVT)
Heart attack (myocardial infarction)
Heart failure (HF)
Pulmonary embolism (PE)
Anticoagulants, often called blood thinners, are drugs that help prevent or treat blood clots. They are medications taken orally or given intravenously.
Physicians prescribe these drugs to reduce the risk of strokes, heart attacks, and blockages in arteries and veins. They can also treat or prevent clots in people with certain medical conditions or surgery, such as heart valve replacements. Sometimes, they may prescribe these drugs to patients with congenital heart defects.
What’s the Latest Update On Blood Thinners Medication?
The following are some of the most recent updates concerning blood thinners:
Pradaxa (dabigatran etexilate)
In 2021, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved this drug to treat pediatric patients with venous thromboembolism who are at least three months old but not more than 12 years old. This is the first oral blood thinner the FDA has approved for pediatric patients.
Originally, it was approved in 2010 for adults to address the increased risk of systemic embolism and stroke in patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation.
Pradaxa is an oral pellet usually administered once the patient completed their first round of treatment for venous thromboembolism. It may also be prescribed to patients with recurrent DVTs.
This drug also comes in capsule form and is usually given to children at least eight years old. It may be taken after the patient has completed their injectable blood thinner treatment after at least five days. In this case, the capsule is used to prevent the recurrence of DVTs.
Some of the expected side effects that this drug may have are bleeding and digestive system problems. In some cases, it may even cause fatal bleeding if left untreated.
Patients with the following conditions may not be allowed to take this drug:
Triple-positive antiphospholipid syndrome
Bioprosthetic heart valves
Moreover, patients who have recently undergone spinal procedures may not be allowed to take this drug due to the increased risk of epidural and spinal hematoma.
Reduction of COVID Hospitalization and Deaths
According to a recent study, COVID patients who have undergone a 90-day anticoagulation therapy have a roughly 50% lower risk of hospitalization and death, regardless of the presence of comorbidities and their ages.
This is regardless of the possibility that the patients have been using the blood thinners before their diagnosis or as part of their COVID treatment.
The study was conducted with a sample size of 6195 participants at least 18 years old. They were brought across 60 clinics and 12 hospitals in the U.S., on an outpatient basis. These patients were diagnosed with COVID between March 4 and August 27, 2020.
According to the researchers, the patients gained some benefits from undergoing the anti-coagulation treatment regardless of the dosage or the type of blood thinners used during the 90-day course of drug administration.
Moreover, adherence to their respective treatment protocols is important to ensure they will fully reap the benefits of being prescribed these medications.
Post-stenting Updates
As per a recently published study, people who have undergone stenting or angioplasty may not be required to take only blood thinners after their medical procedures.
According to cardiologists, the basis for the length of time patients are required to take blood thinners is based on outdated studies and clinical trial data. In practice, the currently existing guidelines for prescribing and administering blood thinners to post-stent patients may not be recommended. Instead, they may benefit more from having a dual antiplatelet therapy consisting of a combination of blood thinner and aspirin.
Considering that the current treatment guidelines were established more than 10 years ago, it is very likely that the build and mechanisms of stents may not bring as much risk as they did previously due to continuous development.
According to the researchers, it is possible that prolonged use of blood thinners, at least 12 months and can reach up to 30 months, may not be necessary anymore and may even bring more harm than good.
In this case, the research team encouraged the physicians to explore the possibility of having a shorter treatment time, such as one month, six months, or less than 12 months, to determine the best patient duration.
Final Thoughts
There are a lot of emerging developments, as far as treatment approaches using blood thinners are concerned. When checking out the studies related to these breakthroughs, looking at the bigger clinical picture when evaluating your patients is just as important. After all, giving out treatments that suit their needs should be considered one of the priorities when drafting a treatment plan for them.