Four heparin preparations: anti-Xa potentiating effect of heparin after subcutaneous injection

Abstract

Four different heparin preparations--sodium and calcium salts of the same batch of heparin (mean molecular weight 15,000), low molecular weight sodium heparin (mean m.w. 9,000) and high molecular weight sodium heparin (mean m.w. 22,000) were injected subcutaneously on different days each into 6 healthy young volunteers in a randomized trial. Plasma heparin levels were measured using the anti-Xa assay at 1 hour, 3-4 hours and 6-7 hours after the injection. The highest anti-Xa potentiating effect was obtained after the injection of the low molecular weight sodium heparin (mean 0.381 i.u./ml) at 3-4 hours after the injection. With sodium heparin (m.w. 15,000) the highest values (0.135 i.u./ml) were found at 1 hour. Significantly lower anti-Xa potentiating effect was obtained 1 hour after the injection of calcium heparin and in particular after the injection of high molecular weight heparin (mean values 0.072 i. u./ml and 0.043 i. u./ml respectively). Both these preparations showed an increase from 1 hour after injection to 3-4 hours after injection (mean values 0.082 i. u./ml and 0.057 i. u./ml at 3-4 hours after injection). These results indicate that the salt and the molecular weight of the preparation may strongly influence the degree of anticoagulation achieved after subcutaneous injection.