Could Warfarin Temporarily Raise Stroke Risks?

Jeff Porter
Stroke of Faith

Thursday, December 26, 2013

Warfarin might be phased out for many patients - maybe - with some unpleasant or worse side effects. And perhaps that is a good thing. From a few days ago, here's a snippet  of a story titled  "Start Warfarin, Have a Stroke?":

• Starting warfarin for preventing stroke in patients with atrial fibrillation appeared to be associated with a transiently increased risk of ischemic stroke before the preventive effects kicked in, a large case-control study showed.
• Compared with not taking any antithrombotics, initiating warfarin was associated with a greater risk of ischemic stroke in the first 30 days ... , with a peak at 3 days, according to Samy Suissa, PhD, of McGill University in Montreal, and colleagues.
• But after that, the well-known stroke-cutting effects were seen ... .

I've always been told that warfarin takes three days to take effect, which fits at least part of the story. Click on the story link to read more.

See the original article:

Could Warfarin Temporarily Raise Stroke Risks?

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