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Arch Intern Med. 2001;161:2148.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

A number of controlled trials have demonstrated that anticoagulant treatment of pulmonary embolism (PE) will reduce the recurrence rate of venous thromboembolism. Pooling symptomatic and asymptomatic cases is usually required to achieve statistical significance. However, recent trials have not demonstrated a reduction in mortality rates when anticoagulant treatment is compared with placebo or when widely varying durations, intensities, and types of anticoagulant therapy are compared. Many of the numerous trials that have failed to demonstrate a reduction in fatal PE have involved large numbers of subjects, suggesting that if such an effect exists it is very small.

To my knowledge, the only placebo-controlled trial that suggested a reduction in PE mortality was a 1960 study by Barritt and Jordan,¹ who observed that 5 of 19 patients died of PE in the untreated group, compared with none of 16 in the treated group. Using a continuity-adjusted ² test yields a P value . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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