Intravenous heparin started within the first 3 hours after onset of symptoms as a treatment for acute nonlacunar hemispheric cerebral infarctions.

Background And Purpose: Heparin is widely used for acute stroke to prevent thrombus propagation and/or multiple emboli generation, although there is, as yet, no demonstrated efficacy. However, all of the available clinical studies allowed long intervals from stroke to treatment. The purpose of this study was to try an intravenous regimen of unfractionated heparin the acute cerebral infarction starting treatment within the first 3 hours of the onset of symptoms.