What’s the Dose?

Abstract

It is doubtful that many in this room would quibble with the statement, in regard to warfarin dosage, that almost every physician appears to behave as if there were no published guidelines for prophylaxis and that he is, so to speak, “therapeutically on his own”. What this means in practical terms to individual patients in each of our own communities is that the therapeutic regimen offered depends on which physician is consulted. Moreover, within each category of practitioner, prophylaxis depends on the hospital entered, the service assigned, the specific attending physician responsible for the patient’s care, and, at some institutions, the house officer on duty at the time of admission. Private office and clinic outpatient management is no more standardized. In recognition of this absence of consensus it is hoped that several of the presentations to follow may provide some common ground concerning therapeutic regimens that will be of intrinsic value for decision making in cardiac and cerebral vascular disease.