Heparin treatment of deep vein thrombosis. Effects and complications after continuous or intermittent heparin administration.

Twenty-eight patients with the diagnosis of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) were subjected to a prospective, randomized study comparing continuous and intermittent heparin treatment, utilizing the same doses and duration of therapy. The effect on pain (estimated with a scoring system) and the antithrombotic effect (assessed by the inhibition of 125I-fibrinogen accretion), followed for one week, were unrelated. Pulmonary embolism was scored and studied from lung perfusion scans and chest X-rays. A high frequency was found in both groups. The therapeutic efficacy and side-effects did not differ between the two treatment groups. Bleeding, preferentially from vein puncture (post-phlebography), was more common in women, while a heparin-induced elevation of serum aminotransferases (S-ALAT adn S-ASAT) (in 2/3 of the patients) was not related to age, sex or bleeding complications.