HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Personal Folders Download to citation manager Author home page(s): Jan L. Svennevig Permission Requests Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Svennevig, J. L. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by Svennevig, J. L. Related Collections Valve disease Related Article

Ann Thorac Surg 2002;73:479
© 2002 The Society of Thoracic Surgeons

Invited commentary

^a Division of Heart and Lung Diseases, Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery Rikhospitalet, Sognsvannsv. 20, NO-0027 Oslo, Norway

e-mail: j.l.svennevig{at}rikshospitalet.no

This rather small study is well analyzed and the results are excellent with only 1.2% hospital mortality. What makes this study of special interest is that it differs from most of the experience from western countries with respect to the level of anticoagulation. The authors claim that the required level of anticoagulation in the Japanese population is of lower intensity than recommended by our guidelines [1, 2]. Thus, the authors used international normalized ratio (INR) levels of 1.5 to 2.1 and 1.6 to 2.8 for aortic valve replacement and mitral valve replacement/double valve replacement respectively. Freedom from thromboembolic events and bleeding at 7 years was high and valve thrombosis was not observed.

It would be of interest to know whether the reported "low incidence of valve-related events even under low intensity anticoagulation" really is valid only for the Japanese population?

References

1. British Society of Haematology. British Committee for Standards in Haematology. Haemostasis and Thrombosis Task Force. Guidelines on oral anticoagulation, second edition. J Clin Pathol 1990;43:177-183.[Free Full Text]
2. Poller L. Therapeutic ranges for oral anticoagulation in different thromboembolic disorders. Ann Hematol 1992;64:52-59.[Medline]

This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Personal Folders Download to citation manager Author home page(s): Jan L. Svennevig Permission Requests Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Svennevig, J. L. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by Svennevig, J. L. Related Collections Valve disease Related Article