• American heart journal · Aug 2008

    Unfractionated heparin dosing and risk of major bleeding in non-ST-segment elevation acute coronary syndromes.

    • Chiara Melloni, Karen P Alexander, Anita Y Chen, L Kristin Newby, Matthew T Roe, Nancy M Allen LaPointe, Charles V Pollack, W Brian Gibler, E Magnus Ohman, Eric D Peterson, and CRUSADE Investigators.
    • Division of Cardiology and Duke Clinical Research Institute, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27705, USA. mello004@mc.duke.edu
    • Am. Heart J. 2008 Aug 1;156(2):209-15.

    BackgroundUnfractionated heparin (UFH) is a mainstay of treatment for patients with non-ST-segment elevation acute coronary syndromes (NSTE ACS), but the practice of weight-adjusted bolus and infusion dosing has not been carefully evaluated.MethodsUsing data from 31,445 high-risk patients with NSTE ACS enrolled at 420 hospitals in the CRUSADE initiative, we evaluated initial UFH dosing relative to guideline recommendations and determined factors associated with excess weight-adjusted dosing and major bleeding, overall and among subgroups. Excess dose was defined as >70 U/kg for bolus or >15 U/kg per hour for infusion.ResultsThe most frequent bolus dose was 5,000 U (42.7%) and infusion dose was 1,000 U/h (46%). An excess weight-adjusted UFH bolus or infusion dose was administered 35% of the time. Factors strongly associated with excess weight-adjusted dosing were age (per 10-year increase) (odds ratio [OR] 1.11, 95% CI 1.08-1.15) and female sex (OR 1.45, 95% CI 1.33-1.59). Rate of major bleeding increased proportionally in relation to dose of UFH for both bolus and infusion, specifically when dose was above the recommended weight-adjusted range (>70 U/kg for bolus or >15 U/kg per hour for infusion). Both excess bolus (OR 1.03, 95% CI 1.00-1.06) and infusion (OR 1.16, 95% CI 1.05-1.28) were individually associated with increased bleeding. The relationship between weight-adjusted UFH dose and major bleeding did not vary independently by sex or age.ConclusionsIn high-risk patients with NSTE ACS, initial UFH bolus and infusion dosing were frequently higher than recommended weight-adjusted ranges, particularly in patients with lower body weight. Excess bolus and infusion rate dosing was associated with more bleeding and was common among elderly and females. Attention to dosing by weight rather than standard bolus and infusion dosing should lead to improved safety in the use of UFH.

      Pubmed     Full text   Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…

What will the 'Medical Journal of You' look like?

Start your free 21 day trial now.

We guarantee your privacy. Your email address will not be shared.