Anticoagulants in Coronary Thrombosis With Myocardial Infarction

THE RECOMMENDATION for the use of anticoagulants in the management of patients with myocardial infarction is based largely on the progress report1of the American Heart Association's Committee for the Evaluation of Anticoagulants in the Treatment of Coronary Thrombosis with Myocardial Infarction. Subsequent to editorial comments2two years ago, members of the Committee published additional data3which appear to confirm the earlier recommendation. Largely because of the general acceptance of the Committee's conclusions, physicians who disagree find themselves under a certain amount of pressure from their colleagues to use anticoagulants; this is so even though at the Twenty-Third Scientific Sessions of the American Heart Association on June 23, 1950, the chairman of a panel on modern treatment of cardiovascular diseases announced that none of the panel members used anticoagulants routinely in treating patients with myocardial infarction. There appear to be "one or two disturbing features"4of