When managing patients with a first episode of unprovoked pulmonary embolism (PE), a study has found that adding 18 months of warfarin after patients have already received 6 months of anticoagulation treatment appears to improve outcomes when compared with placebo. Recurrent venous thromboembolism or major bleeding at 18 months occurred in 3.8% of patients in the warfarin group, compared with a rate of 13.5% observed in the placebo group.
Source: JAMA, July 7, 2015.
