Hospitalized women experiencing an episode of excessive oral anticoagulation had a higher bleeding risk than men.
OBJECTIVE
Overanticoagulated medical inpatients may be particularly prone to bleeding complications. Among medical inpatients with excessive oral anticoagulation (AC), we sought to identify patient and treatment factors associated with bleeding.


METHODS
We prospectively identified consecutive patients receiving oral AC admitted to the medical ward of a university hospital (February-July 2006) who had at least one international normalized ratio (INR) value >3.0 during the hospital stay. We recorded patient characteristics, AC-related factors, and concomitant treatments (e.g., platelet inhibitors) that increase the bleeding risk. The outcome was overall bleeding, defined as the occurrence of major or minor bleeding during the hospital stay. We used logistic regression to explore patient and treatment factors associated with bleeding.


RESULTS
Overall, 145 inpatients with excessive oral AC comprised our study sample. Atrial fibrillation (59%) and venous thromboembolism (28%) were the most common indications for AC. Twelve patients (8.3%) experienced a bleeding event. Of these, 8 had major bleeding. Women had a somewhat higher risk of major bleeding than men (12.5% vs 4.1%, p = 0.08). Multivariable analysis demonstrated that female gender was independently associated with bleeding (odds ratio [OR] 4.3, 95% confidence interval [95% C1] 1.1-17.8). Age, history of major bleeding, value of the index INR, and concomitant treatment with platelet inhibitors were not independent predictors of bleeding.


CONCLUSIONS
We found that hospitalized women experiencing an episode of excessive oral AC have a 4-fold increased risk of bleeding compared with men. Whether overanticoagulated women require more aggressive measures of AC reversal must be examined in further studies.
Cosma Rochat
Monica
M
Department of Internal Medicine, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland. Monica.Cosma@chuv.ch
Waeber
Gérard
G
Wasserfallen
Jean-Blaise
JB
Nakov
Konstantin
K
Aujesky
Drahomir
D
D000284:Administration, Oral; D000368:Aged; D000925:Anticoagulants / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000009:adverse effects*; D001281:Atrial Fibrillation / Q000188:drug therapy; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006470:Hemorrhage / Q000139:chemically induced* / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D019934:International Normalized Ratio; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D017678:Sex Distribution; D013557:Switzerland / Q000453:epidemiology; D013923:Thromboembolism / Q000188:drug therapy; D016387:Women's Health
D000925:Anticoagulants