Very Interesting...

http://health.usnews.com/articles/health/healthday/2009/03/28/new-device-treats-common-heart-rhythm-disorder.html

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1 Comments

Interesting

by ElectricFrank - 2009-03-28 04:03:48

One of the statements in the article says:
The researchers found that patients with the WATCHMAN had a 32 percent lower risk of stroke and cardiovascular death compared with warfarin therapy. This was especially true for hemorrhagic stroke, which causes bleeding in the brain and is usually fatal, Holmes noted.

This indicates that there is a significant risk of hemorrhagic stroke while on blood thinner therapy.

Now try to make sense out of the figures quoted. Six times the the risk of having a stroke with untreated atrial fibrillation. This the chance of having a clot type strokes. The question is six times greater than what? I've done a lot of searching the internet for a figure of what the risk of a healthy person is of having a clot type stroke. My guess it that it is very very small especially in the under 50yr group, so 6 times the risk is still very small in absolute numbers. Now consider what the chances of having a hemorrhagic stroke if you are put on thinners to prevent this very small risk.

The article also fails to state the risk of the procedure they are talking about.

I don't pretend to know the answers to these questions, because I don't have the actual figures. They remind me of the calculations that lead to the current financial crises. As the old adage said: "Figures don't lie, but lairs can sure figure".

frank

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