The recent common use of dicumarol® in patients requiring the determination of the sedimentation rate of erythrocytes raises the question of how dicumarol® affects the sedimentation rate. The little available information is discordant.
On the one hand, Peters, Guyther and Brambel1 reported that, with dicumarol® therapy in coronary thrombosis, the sedimentation rate is increased by the drug to such an extent that it no longer serves as an index of healing of the damaged myocardium. Contrariwise, Wright and Prandoni2 observed that the administration of dicumarol® is not accompanied with an increase in the sedimentation rate. Cosgriff3 recently reported that the rate is not affected in normal persons. Falk,4 while stating that the sedimentation rate is affected, expressed the belief that the test has value.
We therefore studied the effect of dicumarol® on the sedimentation rate in the following groups: (1) persons with normal sedimentation rates, (2)