Long-Term Anticoagulant Prophylaxis after Myocardial Infarction

In a double-blind, randomized test, long-term prophylactic anticoagulant therapy after acute myocardial infarction did not reduce mortality rate or complications. More treated patients required hospitalization than patients not receiving anticoagulant drugs. Patients continuously entered the study between 1956 and 1967. The average period at risk was about six years. All patients received six weeks of anticoagulant therapy for initial episodes of infarction, and, time and circumstances permitting, for recurrent myocardial infarctions.