The New England journal of medicine
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Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical Trial
The effect of warfarin on mortality and reinfarction after myocardial infarction.
The use of oral anticoagulation in the long-term treatment of survivors of acute myocardial infarction has been highly controversial. We therefore randomly assigned 1214 patients who had recovered from acute myocardial infarction (mean interval from the onset of symptoms to randomization, 27 days) to treatment with warfarin (607 patients) or placebo (607 patients) for an average of 37 months (range, 24 to 63). ⋯ Long-term therapy with warfarin has an important beneficial effect after myocardial infarction and can be recommended in the treatment of patients who survive the acute phase.