Patients with anticoagulant therapy more often present with a lower source of GI bleeding than both those on antiplatelet medications and those with no antithrombotics. This should be taken into account when initially evaluating these patients.

Overall patients on anticoagulants are also less likely to present with hematemesis, even with a later confirmed upper GI bleeding.

Furthermore, results indicate that the need for endoscopic interventions and transfusions are dependent on initial presenting symptoms but not affected by antithrombotic therapy at admission.

585 patients were included.

Median age was 75 years and a majority (58%) were male.

In total, 269 (46%) patients had no antithrombotic medication and 316 (54%) had some kind of antithrombotic medication.

Read More