A Wayne State University School of Medicine study has shown that American physicians were more likely than their Canadian counterparts to administer a drug to stroke patients that has been proven ineffective and potentially dangerous.

Dr. Seemant Chaturvedi, WSU associate professor of neurology, surveyed 290U.S. neurologists and 283 Canadian neurologists about how they would react to patients in five different scenarios as well as their attitudes about the legal implications of their actions. U.S. neurologists were significantly more likely than Canadian neurologists to administer intravenous heparin, a blood thinner that has been proven ineffective and potentially dangerous in about 2 percent of cases where bleeding in the brain develops as a result of heparin use.

"Heparin may be helpful in 1 percent of cases and harmful in 1 percent of cases, and there's nothing to support that it's any better than aspirin," Dr. Chaturvedi said. "But there are medico-legal factors: Doctors are worried they will get sued if they don't use it."

Thirty-three percent of American doctors vs. 11 percent of Canadian doctors cited medico-legal factors as a potential influence on the decision-making involved in administering IV heparin.

Dr. Chaturvedi serves on a committee of the American Academy of Neurology that is working to develop guidelines on the use of heparin.