
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, September 8, 1995                   TAG: 9509080104
SECTION: NATL/INTL                    PAGE: A-7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

STUDY: DRUG STOPS FLOW OF STROKES

Doctors could prevent 40,000 strokes a year by prescribing a common anti-clotting drug to patients with fast, irregular heartbeats, a government-sponsored study said Thursday.

Only half the eligible patients now get the anticoagulant drug warfarin, better known by its brand name, Coumadin.

The value of anticoagulant therapy in preventing strokes already has been known, but the announcement by the U.S. Agency for Health Care Policy and Research adds new weight to recommendations that the drug be used in patients with atrial fibrillation.

Many physicians are hesitant about prescribing warfarin because the drug can cause bleeding, and patients must be closely monitored.

But Dr. David B. Matchar of Duke University, the principal investigator for the stroke prevention study, said, ``When properly administered, we estimate that for every major bleeding complication it causes, the drug prevents 20 strokes and deaths.''

The researchers also said that surgical treatment for stroke prevention is worthwhile for high-risk patients, but not for those with no signs of a stroke.

Up to 100,000 Americans each year undergo an operation called a carotid endarterectomy to clear fat from the carotid arteries, which carry blood to the brain.

by CNB