Assessment of warfarin therapy under full dose using indium-111 platelet scintigraphy in patients with intracardiac thrombi.

Twenty patients in whom intracardiac thrombi were detected by indium-111 platelet scintigraphy (the first platelet scintigraphy) were prospectively studied to examine the effect of warfarin therapy under full dose on the intracardiac thrombogenicity. Eleven patients (group I) who received 2-6 mg/day of warfarin and 9 patients (group II) who did not receive warfarin had the second platelet scintigraphies 14-71 days after the first platelet scintigraphies. In group I, 10 platelet scintigraphies became negative and one remained positive for intracardiac thrombi after administration of warfarin, while in group II 8 platelet scintigraphies remained positive and only one changed to negative. The incidence of negative image at the second platelet scintigraphy was significantly lower in group II than that in group I. In group I, the degree of accumulation of platelets onto the surface of the thrombus (%IE), showed significant reduction (0.69 +/- 0.48 to 0.11 +/- 0.21) after warfarin therapy, while in group II %IE at the second scintigraphy (1.07 +/- 1.03) were not significantly different from those at the first scintigraphy (1.13 +/- 0.79). These results indicated that warfarin therapy under full dose inhibited the deposition of platelets on the intracardiac thrombi and thrombogenicity in the patients with intracardiac thrombi which were detected by indium-111 platelet scintigraphy.