Anticoagulation intensity and outcomes among patients prescribed oral anticoagulant therapy: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Patients taking oral anticoagulant therapy balance the risks of hemorrhage and thromboembolism. We sought to determine the association between anticoagulation intensity and the risk of hemorrhagic and thromboembolic events. We also sought to determine how under-or overanticoagulation would influence patient outcomes.

Methods

We reviewed the MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials and CINAHL databases to identify studies involving patients taking anticoagulants that reported person-years of observation and the number of hemorrhages or thromboemboli in 3 or more discrete ranges of international normalized ratios. We estimated the overall relative and absolute risks of events specific to anticoagulation intensity.

Results

We included 19

SUBMITTER: Oake N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2474869 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature