Is Warfarin Really a Reasonable Therapeutic Alternative to Aspirin for Preventing Recurrent Noncardioembolic Ischemic Stroke?
From the Department of Neurology, Royal Perth Hospital, Perth, Western Australia. Correspondence to Clinical Prof Graeme J. Hankey, Consultant Neurologist and Head of Stroke Unit, Department of Neurology, Royal Perth Hospital, Wellington Street, Perth, Western Australia 6001. E-mail gjhankey{at}cyllene.uwa.edu.au’ + u + ‘@’ + d + ”//–> Section Editor: Marc Fisher MD Key Words: anticoagulants aspirin clinical trials stroke, ischemic Eleven years ago, on June 1, 1991, Dr J.P. Mohr addressed delegates of the International Conference on Stroke, Geneva, about anticoagulants as a therapeutic strategy in stroke. He bemoaned the fact that heparin and warfarin had the “bad luck” to be manufactured initially in the post-World War II period, before drugs were evaluated by controlled clinical trials. As a consequence, clinicians judged their effectiveness on the basis of theory and compared their personal experience with historical controls and with those found in the literature. With the passag
