Treatment of acute venous thromboembolism with dabigatran or warfarin and pooled analysis

Background— Dabigatran and warfarin have been compared for the treatment of acute venous thromboembolism (VTE) in a previous trial. We undertook this study to extend those findings. Methods and Results— In a randomized, double-blind, double-dummy trial of 2589 patients with acute VTE treated with low-molecular-weight or unfractionated heparin for 5 to 11 days, we compared dabigatran 150 mg twice daily with warfarin. The primary outcome, recurrent symptomatic, objectively confirmed VTE and related deaths during 6 months of treatment occurred in 30 of the 1279 dabigatran patients (2.3%) compared with 28 of the 1289 warfarin patients (2.2%; hazard ratio, 1.08; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.…