John W Eikelboom, Stuart J Connolly, Martina Brueckmann, Christopher B Granger, Arie P Kappetein, Michael J Mack, Jon Blatchford, Kevin Devenny, Jeffrey Friedman, Kelly Guiver, Ruth Harper, Yasser Khder, Maximilian T Lobmeyer, Hugo Maas, Jens-Uwe Voigt, Maarten L Simoons, Frans Van de Werf
BACKGROUND: Dabigatran is an oral direct thrombin inhibitor that has been shown to be an effective alternative to warfarin in patients with atrial fibrillation. We evaluated the use of dabigatran in patients with mechanical heart valves. METHODS: In this phase 2 dose-validation study, we studied two populations of patients: those who had undergone aortic- or mitral-valve replacement within the past 7 days and those who had undergone such replacement at least 3 months earlier...
September 26, 2013: New England Journal of Medicine