Safety of warfarin therapy in chronic hemodialysis patients: a prospective cohort study

• Published in: Clinical and experimental nephrology 2016-10, Vol.20 (5), p.787-794
• Main Authors: Hayashi, Matsuhiko, Abe, Takayuki, Iwai, Mieko, Matsui, Ayumi, Yoshida, Tadashi, Sato, Yuji, Kanno, Yoshihiko
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Age Factors; Aged; Anticoagulants - adverse effects; Anticoagulants - therapeutic use; Calciphylaxis - etiology; Chi-Square Distribution; Female; Hemorrhage - chemically induced; Humans; Male; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Middle Aged; Multivariate Analysis; Nephrology; Original Article; Peripheral Arterial Disease - etiology; Platelet Aggregation Inhibitors - therapeutic use; Proportional Hazards Models; Prospective Studies; Renal Dialysis - adverse effects; Renal Dialysis - mortality; Renal Insufficiency, Chronic - diagnosis; Renal Insufficiency, Chronic - mortality; Renal Insufficiency, Chronic - therapy; Risk Assessment; Risk Factors; Stroke - etiology; Time Factors; Tokyo; Treatment Outcome; Urology; Warfarin - adverse effects; Warfarin - therapeutic use
• ISSN: 1342-1751; 1437-7799
• DOI: 10.1007/s10157-015-1205-0

Background We conducted a multicenter prospective cohort study to assess the safety of warfarin therapy in Japanese hemodialysis (HD) patients. Methods Chronic HD patients on warfarin therapy (warfarin users) were recruited from 111 HD centers in Japan. Two dialysis-vintage-matched warfarin non-users (non-users) were selected from the same HD center as each warfarin user. Clinical data were collected upon registration and every 12 months thereafter for up to 36 months. Results The final cohort consisted of 365 warfarin users and 692 non-users and was followed for an average of 27.7 months. The mean age of warfarin users (68.8 ± 10.6 years) was significantly higher than that of non-users (66.9 ± 11.0 years, p