Clinical Experience with Dipaxin and with the Combined Use of Prothrombopenic Agents

The experience with a new prothrombopenic agent, Dipaxin, is presented. With a 30 mg. dose a prothrombin complex concentration under 30 per cent is reached in 41 hours or less. When associ-ated with 1500 mg. of Tromexan the latent period is reduced to 24 hours. The prothrombopenic action of Dipaxin is readily counteracted with vitamin K, administered either orally or intra-venously. NTICOAGULANT therapy has its main indication during the acute phase of thromboembolic disease. Among the drugs with anticoagulant properties the most commonly used are those which interfere with the synthesis of prothrombin and stable fac-tor, the so-called prothrombopenic agents. We have had a large personal experience with bishydroxycoumarin (Dicumarol), ethyl biscoumacetate (Tromexan), cyclocumarol (Cumopyran) and phenindione (Danilone). From these, we consider Danilone the drug of choice as its action starts in a relatively short time (36 to 48 hours) and the initial and maintenance doses are very similar in dif-ferent individuals.' Many efforts have been directed towards the finding of a prothrombopenic agent with a quicker action and a more reproducible dosage. We have studied a new indandione derivative the 2-diphenylacetyl-l,3-indandione (Dipaxin) which appears to meet the above mentioned characteristics and are presenting in this paper our observations. Drugs used in this study were made available through the courtesy of Abbott Laboratories, Nort