Treatment of disseminated intravascular coagulation with low molecular weight heparin. Research Group of FR-860 on DIC in Japan.

A multicenter cooperative study was carried out involving 47 nationwide institutions in Japan to assess the efficacy and safety of LMWH (FR-860) in DIC. Fifty-six cases were challenged by FR-860 injection principally for 5 days at doses of 75 U/kg/day in group I (n = 27) and 150 U/kg/day in group II, (n = 29). Scoring points were defined based on the severity of bleeding symptoms, organ failures, and abnormal coagulation-fibrinolytic tests. Therapeutic effects of FR-860 were evaluated objectively according to degrees of improvement of these scores. Six patients (10.7%) died of their underlying diseases or complications other than DIC. Hemorrhagic side effects occurred in 1 and 3 cases of groups I and II, respectively. Bleeding symptoms improved excellently or moderately in 45.5 and 31.6% of the cases in groups I and II, respectively. Concerning organ failures and coagulation-fibrinolytic tests, remarkable improvement was observed in 31.6 and 66.7% of the cases of the group I, whereas they remained 14.3% and 51.7% in group II. The overall usefulness of FR-860 was 66.7% in group I and 58.6% in group II. These results demonstrate that FR-860 is effective in DIC at a dose of 75 U/kg/day.