Dabigatran Blood Thinning Drug Is Safer Than Rat Poison - Study
Tuesday, September 29, 2009 - 10:28
in Health & Medicine
In an article reviewed by Faculty of 1000: Biology and Medicine, Faculty Members Robert Ruff, Brian Olshansky and Luis Ruilope say the blood-thinner dabigatran is shown to protect against stroke, blood clotting and major bleeding as effectively as warfarin, but with fewer side effects. The original paper, "Dabigatran versus warfarin in patients with atrial fibrillation", by Neal Devaraj and Stuart Connolly et al. in the New England Journal of Medicine, said warfarin (also commonly used in rat poison) has several drawbacks; finding the correct dosage requires careful and laborious monitoring and the risk of major bleeding has led to it being under-used. read more