[Coronary thrombosis and long term anticoagulant treatment. Results of 173 autopsies after myocardial infarction].

Report of an anatomical-clinical study concerning 173 patients with an average follow-up period of 5 and 1/2 years after the onset of myocardial infarction. They were subdivided into four comparable groups differing only in the quality of the long-term antivitamin K treatment which was administered. A survey of the coronary artery and myocardial lesions was performed for every heart. Acute occlusive coronary artery thromboses were four times less frequent in the correctly treated group then in the other three groups (p less than 0.001). There was no significant difference between the insufficiently treated groups and the untreated group. Recurrent myocardial infarctions were accompanied in 90 per cent of cases by acute occlusive coronary artery thromboses and were four times less frequent when treatment was efficient (p less than 0.001). These results confirm the part played by coronary artery thrombosis in the aggravation of coronary atherosclerosis and justify the attempts at long-term prophylaxis. The provide the proof that antivitamin K administration, at efficient dosage, maintained for a long time, has a significant influence on the cause of death in these patients, by decreasing the number of coronary artery thrombosis. Long-term anticoagulant treatment, in spite of its haemorrhagic complications and limits, should not be given up until a new efficient treatment is available.