[Anticoagulant efficacy of Sintrom and blood concentration of Ludiomil on simultaneous administration of the two preparations].

As long-term anticoagulant therapy with coumarin derivates like Sintrom becomes more and more important the question arises whether there is an interaction with a new drug like Ludiomil. An open, noncomparative trial was carried out with 20 patients receiving Sintrom (overall mean :3.0 mg/d, range :0 to 10 mg/d) for a period of 4 weeks, and in addition, during the second and third week Ludiomil (50 mg t. i. d.) orally. As a measurement of the efficacy of the antiocoagulant therapy, the correlation coefficients between the doses of Sintrom and the prothrombin value of the nex day were calculated for each patient and each week separately. An analysis of variance did not show any statistically significant difference between the correlation coefficients of the weeks with and without Ludiomil therapy, i.e. there is no change in the efficacy of the anticoagulant therapy. During the Ludiomil therapy the control of the anticoagulant therapy was slightly better, i.e. the fluctuations of the prothrombin values less, but statistically these differences were not significant. The plasma levels of Ludiomil in these patients were similar to thse found previously in both depressed and healthy volunteers.