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Timing of Hypercoagulable Screens
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| Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings. |
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Drs Federman and Kirsner provide an excellent review of the hypercoagulable
disorders.1 Clearly, the number of these
disorders are increasing by the year; however, our knowledge of what to do
with the results is not quite keeping up.
In their article, they make a statement to the effect that the levels
of protein C, protein S, and antithrombin III should not be measured
at the time of an acute episode of thrombosis because the levels are decreased
during an acute event. They recommend measuring levels of protein C and protein
S several months down the road, which would necessitate discontinuing warfarin
therapy, usually for a period of 14 days, and potentially covering with daily
injections of low-molecular-weight heparin.
At my institution, the practice has been to measure the levels of protein
C, protein S, and antithrombin III at the time of the acute event.
In more than 95% of the . . . [Full Text of this Article]
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