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Heparin is a highly sulfated polysaccharide. Commercial preparations are made from porcine intestinal mucosa and are heterogeneous, consisting of chains of saccharide units of varying length. Manufacturers calibrate their in-house material against the World Health Organization standard to assign potency to individual lots of heparin. Bleeding is the major adverse event associated with use of heparin, but reports began to appear late in 2007 about dialysis patients who experienced hypersensitivity reactions after receiving bolus infusions of heparin. By April 2008, the CDC had identified 81 deaths linked to multidose vials of heparin that had been distributed by Baxter Healthcare. Although heparin alters the configuration of platelet factor …