ST. LOUIS, April 15 (UPI) -- U.S. medical scientists say they have developed a method of estimating the bleeding risk in heart attack victims.
Using clinical variables, researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Duke University and collaborating institutions say their method can help lessen the chances that heart attack patients will experience the common complication.
"Until now, there hasn't been a simple tool applicable to the general population that can predict the risk of bleeding before patients are treated for heart attack," said Dr. Richard Bach, a Washington University cardiologist and medical director of the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit at Barnes-Jewish Hospital. "Older methods for estimating risk either were derived from a low-bleeding-risk population or used variables that aren't available until after treatment is begun."
Study co-author Dr. Brian Gage, also from Washington University, said the risk of bleeding is substantial in people with heart attacks. "We found that this population could be risk-stratified, so that people at high risk of bleeding could receive less aggressive anti-coagulant and anti-platelet therapy while those at low risk could receive full-dose therapy."
Led by Dr. Sumeet Subherwal, a cardiology fellow at Duke University, the study appears in the journal Circulation.
