• To quantify physican practices in the care of patients with presumed pulmonary embolism or deep venous thrombosis, we analyzed heparin sodium orders, the intensity of anticoagulation, and complications in 65 patients with the diagnosis of deep venous thrombosis or pulmonary embolism. All patients were given heparin, for a mean (± SEM) period of 8.8 ± 0.4 days. A high percentage of patients (60%) did not have a single partial thromboplastin time (PTT) greater than 1.5 times control within the first 24 hours of heparin therapy. Not until day 8 were 90% of PTTs in therapeutic range. We Identified five common practices that led to delays in achieving a PTT greater than 1.5 times the laboratory control: (1) failure to start heparin therapy at the time of initial clinical suspicion, (2) choice of a heparin sodium bolus (mean, 5861 ± 365 U) and continuous infusion (1026 ± 148 U/h) insufficient to elevate the PTT to greater than 1.5 times control, (3) delay in obtaining the first PTT (mean, 11.7 ± 1 h after start of heparin therapy), (4) insufficient heparin dosing in response to a low PTT, and (5) excessive and prolonged reductions in heparin therapy in response to a PTT greater than three times control, leading to subtherapeutic levels in 56% of subsequent PTTs. We think that poor understanding of heparin kinetics, overcautious behavior of physicians, and high heparin requirements in this selected population account for the findings.
(Arch Intern Med 1988;148:1321-1325)
Register and get free email Table of Contents alerts, saved searches, PowerPoint downloads, CME quizzes, and more
Subscribe for full-text access to content from 1998 forward and a host of useful features
Activate your current subscription (AMA members and current subscribers)
Purchase Online Access to this article for 24 hours
Country-Specific Mortality and Growth Failure in Infancy and Yound Children and Association With Material Stature
Use interactive graphics and maps to view and sort country-specific infant and early dhildhood mortality and growth failure data and their association with maternal
Instructions
Thank you for submitting a comment on this article. It will be reviewed by JAMA Internal Medicine editors. You will be notified when your comment has been published. Comments should not exceed 500 words of text and 10 references.
Do not submit personal medical questions or information that could identify a specific patient, questions about a particular case, or general inquiries to an author. Only content that has not been published, posted, or submitted elsewhere should be submitted. By submitting this Comment, you and any coauthors transfer copyright to the journal if your Comment is posted.
* = Required Field
Disclosure of Any Conflicts of Interest* Indicate all relevant conflicts of interest of each author below, including all relevant financial interests, activities, and relationships within the past 3 years including, but not limited to, employment, affiliation, grants or funding, consultancies, honoraria or payment, speakers’ bureaus, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, royalties, donation of medical equipment, or patents planned, pending, or issued. If all authors have none, check "No potential conflicts or relevant financial interests" in the box below. Please also indicate any funding received in support of this work. The information will be posted with your response.
Some tools below are only available to our subscribers or users with an online account.
Download citation file:
Web of Science® Times Cited: 116
Customize your page view by dragging & repositioning the boxes below.
More Listings atJAMACareerCenter.com >
and access these and other features:
Register Now
Enter your username and email address. We'll send you a link to reset your password.
Enter your username and email address. We'll send instructions on how to reset your password to the email address we have on record.
Need assistance?
Athens and Shibboleth are access management services that provide single sign-on to protected resources. They replace the multiple user names and passwords necessary to access subscription-based content with a single user name and password that can be entered once per session. It operates independently of a user's location or IP address. If your institution uses Athens or Shibboleth authentication, please contact your site administrator to receive your user name and password.