Objectives The purpose of this study was to investigate the risk of thrombosis and bleeding according to multiple antithrombotic treatment regimens in atrial fibrillation (AF) patients after ...myocardial infarction (MI) or percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Background The optimal antithrombotic treatment strategy is unresolved in patients with multiple indications. Methods A total of 12,165 AF patients hospitalized with MI and/or undergoing PCI between 2001 and 2009 were identified by nationwide registries (60.7% male; mean age 75.6 years). Risk of MI/coronary death, ischemic stroke, and bleeding according to antithrombotic treatment regimen was estimated by Cox regression models. Results Within 1 year, MI or coronary death, ischemic stroke, and bleeding events occurred in 2,255 patients (18.5%), 680 (5.6%), and 769 (6.3%), respectively. Relative to triple therapy (oral anticoagulation OAC plus aspirin plus clopidogrel), no increased risk of recurrent coronary events was seen for OAC plus clopidogrel (hazard ratio HR: 0.69, 95% confidence interval CI: 0.48 to 1.00), OAC plus aspirin (HR: 0.96, 95% CI: 0.77 to 1.19), or aspirin plus clopidogrel (HR: 1.17, 95% CI: 0.96 to 1.42), but aspirin plus clopidogrel was associated with a higher risk of ischemic stroke (HR: 1.50, 95% CI: 1.03 to 2.20). Also, OAC plus aspirin and aspirin plus clopidogrel were associated with a significant increased risk of all-cause death (HR: 1.52, 95% CI: 1.17 to 1.99 and HR: 1.60, 95% CI: 1.25 to 2.05, respectively). When compared to triple therapy, bleeding risk was nonsignificantly lower for OAC plus clopidogrel (HR: 0.78, 95% CI: 0.55 to 1.12) and significantly lower for OAC plus aspirin and aspirin plus clopidogrel. Conclusions In real-life AF patients with indication for multiple antithrombotic drugs after MI/PCI, OAC and clopidogrel was equal or better on both benefit and safety outcomes compared to triple therapy.
Background The Euro Heart Survey showed that antithrombotic treatment in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) was moderately tailored to the 2001 American College of Cardiology, American Heart ...Association, and European Society of Cardiology (ACC/AHA/ESC) guidelines for the management of AF. What consequences does guideline-deviant antithrombotic treatment have in daily practice? Methods In the Euro Heart Survey on AF (2003-2004), an observational study on AF care in European cardiology practices, information was available on baseline stroke risk profile and antithrombotic drug treatment and on cardiovascular events during 1-year follow-up. Antithrombotic guideline adherence is assessed according to the 2001 ACC/AHA/ESC guidelines. Multivariable logistic regression was performed to assess the association of guideline deviance with adverse outcome. Results The effect of antithrombotic guideline deviance was analyzed exclusively in 3634 high-risk patients with AF because these composed the majority (89%) and because few cardiovascular events occurred in low-risk patients. Among high-risk patients, antithrombotic treatment was in agreement with the guidelines in 61% of patients, whereas 28% were undertreated and 11% overtreated. Compared to guideline adherence, undertreatment was associated with a higher chance of thromboembolism (odds ratio OR, 1.97; 95% CI, 1.29-3.01; P = .004) and the combined end point of cardiovascular death, thromboembolism, or major bleeding (OR, 1.54; 95% CI, 1.14-2.10; P = .024). This increased risk was nonsignificant for the end point of stroke alone (OR, 1.42; 95% CI, 0.82-2.46; P = .170). Overtreatment was nonsignificantly associated with a higher risk for major bleeding (OR, 1.52; 95% CI, 0.76-3.02; P = .405). Conclusions Antithrombotic undertreatment of high-risk patients with AF was associated with a worse cardiovascular prognosis during 1 year, whereas overtreatment was not associated with a higher chance for major bleeding.
Summary Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a common arrhythmia that is associated with substantial morbidity and mortality, particularly due to stroke and thromboembolism. Anticoagulant therapy reduces the ...risk of stroke, and the greatest benefit is seen in patients at highest absolute risk. Aspirin is a less effective alternative, and any benefit of aspirin might be due to its favourable effects on arterial thrombosis caused by vascular disease. However, anticoagulant therapy remains underused, particularly in the elderly, who probably have the most to gain from stroke prevention owing to their high absolute risk. The underuse of anticoagulation might also be related to uncertain risk of thromboembolism in individual patients and a perceived overestimation of the benefit and underestimation of risk of bleeding with warfarin in clinical trials. In this Review, we summarise the data for and against warfarin and aspirin therapies and discuss the clinical assessments and risk stratifications that guide the use of antithrombotic therapy for stroke prevention in patients with AF. Possible barriers to the uptake of anticoagulation therapy are also discussed.
Abstract In the ENSURE-AF study (NCT 02072434), edoxaban was compared to enoxaparin–warfarin in 2199 patients undergoing electrical cardioversion of non-valvular atrial fibrillation (AF). In this ...multicenter PROBE trial, we analyzed patients randomized to enoxaparin–warfarin. We determined time to achieve therapeutic range (TtTR), time in therapeutic range (TiTR), their clinical determinants, relation to SAMe-TT2 R2 score, and impact on primary endpoints (composite of stroke, systemic embolic event SEE, myocardial infarction MI, and cardiovascular death CVD and composite of major + clinically relevant non-major CRNM bleeding). Among 1104 patients randomized to enoxaparin––warfarin, 27% were oral anticoagulant naïve. Mean age was 64.2±11 years and mean CHA2 DS2 -VASc score was 2.6. Mean TtTR was 7.7 days (median 7 days) and mean TiTR after reaching INR 2.0–3.0 was 71%. In 695 patients with INR <2.0 prior to first dose and who reached ≥2.0, 436 had a SAMe-TT2 R2 score ≤2 and 259 a score of >2. On multivariate regression, an independent predictor of extended TtTR was creatinine clearance (CrCl) P =0.02. TtTR was marginally related to stroke/SEE/MI/CVD ( P =0.06; OR=0.23, 95% CI 0.02–1.17) but not to any bleeding. Independent predictors of TiTR were prior VKA experience ( P <0.01) and low HAS-BLED score ( P =0.02). TiTR was related to any bleeding ( P =0.02; OR=0.39, 95% CI 0.16–0.88), but not stroke/SE/MI/CVD. In this cohort of warfarin users with a high TiTR no difference was seen between TtTR and TiTR in relation to SAMe-TT2 R2 score. In conclusion, even in this short-term study, TiTR was significantly related to bleeding events.
Objectives The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of atrial fibrillation (AF) and antithrombotic treatment on the prognosis in patients with heart failure (HF) as well as vascular ...disease. Background HF, vascular disease, and AF are pathophysiologically related, and understanding antithrombotic treatment for these conditions is crucial. Methods In hospitalized patients with HF and coexisting vascular disease (coronary artery disease or peripheral arterial disease) followed from 1997 to 2009, AF status was categorized as prevalent AF, incident AF, or no AF. Risk of thromboembolism (TE), myocardial infarction (MI), and serious bleeding was assessed by Cox regression models (hazard ratio HR with 95% confidence interval CI) with antithrombotic therapy and AF as time-dependent variables. Results A total of 37,464 patients were included (age, 74.5 ± 10.7 years; 36.3% females) with a mean follow-up of 3 years during which 20.7% were categorized as prevalent AF and 17.2% as incident AF. Compared with vitamin K antagonist (VKA) in prevalent AF, VKA plus antiplatelet was not associated with a decreased risk of TE (HR: 0.91; 95% CI: 0.73 to 1.12) or MI (HR: 1.11; 95% CI: 0.96 to 1.28), whereas bleeding risk was significantly increased (HR: 1.31; 95% CI: 1.09 to 1.57). Corresponding estimates for incident AF were HRs of 0.77 (95% CI: 0.56 to 1.06), 1.07 (95% CI: 0.89 to 1.28), and 2.71 (95% CI: 1.33 to 2.21) for TE, MI, and bleeding, respectively. In no AF patients, no statistical differences were seen between antithrombotic therapies in TE or MI risk, whereas bleeding risk was significantly increased for VKA with and without single-antiplatelet therapy. Conclusions In AF patients with coexisting HF and vascular disease, adding single-antiplatelet therapy to VKA therapy is not associated with additional benefit in thromboembolic or coronary risk, but notably increased bleeding risk.
Background
Left atrial thrombus (LAT) often complicates with atrial fibrillation (AF). The evidence whether fibrin D-dimer levels could be used as a predictive biomarker for LAT is contradictory. ...This study firstly investigated the relationship between ‘normal range’ D-dimer and prevalent LAT. Second, we explored factors contributing to normal D-dimer levels in the presence of LAT.
Methods
We studied 244 AF patients with LAT (mean age: 59.9 years, SD:11.7; 53.3% female): of these, 103 (42.2%) had normal D-dimer, 25 (10.2%) had atrial thrombus exclusion score (ATE score) of 0 19 (16.7%) males had CHA2DS2-VASc score of 0, 21(16.2%) females had CHA2DS2-VASc score of 1 and 16 had overlapped ATE score of 0 and CHA2DS2-VASc score of 0 (N = 8 if male) or CHA2DS2-VASc score of 1(N = 8 if female). Using multivariate binary analysis, larger left atrial diameter (LAD; adjusted OR: 1.06, 1.03−1.10, p = 0.001) were associated with increased D-dimer. Patients with high body mass index (BMI), hypertension history and previous anticoagulation were more likely to show normal range D-dimer levels in the presence of LAT.
Conclusions
A high prevalence (42.2%) of ‘normal range’ D-dimer levels was found in AF patients with LAT, especially in those with hypertension, high BMI and prior anticoagulation. D-dimer levels of those patients with larger LAD were more likely to be increased.
There are few head-to-head trials directly comparing non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants (NOACs) against one other. A network meta-analysis (NMA) was performed to examine the indirect ...comparisons among NOACs in Asians with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation (NVAF). STATA 15.0 and ADDIS 1.16.8 softwares were used to perform the statistical analysis. Odds ratios with 95% credible intervals were applied to evaluate the end points. The probabilities of treatment rank were used to understand which interventions are more effective and safe, and the total rank probability was 1. In our NMA, the rank probabilities of apixaban in the case of stroke or systemic embolism, death from any cause, major bleeding, and intracranial hemorrhage (ICH) were 0.47, 0.49, 0.42, and 0.51, respectively. For cases of myocardial infarction, the rank probabilities of rivaroxaban were 0.40. This NMA indirectly compares the main efficacy and safety end points among NOACs in Asians with NVAF, and the rank probability analysis showed that apixaban likely performs best in cases of stroke or systemic embolism, death from any cause, and ICH; rivaroxaban may have the best performance for myocardial infarction.
Efficacy and safety of direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) for preventing primary and recurrent venous thromboembolism (VTE) in patients with cancer remain unclear. In this study, we conducted a ...systematic review to summarize the most up-to-date evidence from randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Our primary outcomes included the benefit outcome (VTE) and safety outcome (major bleeding). A random-effects model was used to pool the relative risks (RRs) for data syntheses. The Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation tool was used to evaluate the quality of the entire body of evidence across studies. We included 11 RCTs with a total of 3741 patients with cancer for analyses. The DOACs were significantly related with a reduced risk of VTE when compared with non-DOACs: RR = 0.77, 95% confidence interval CI: 0.61-0.99, P = .04. Nonsignificant trend towards a higher risk of major bleeding was found in DOACs: RR = 1.28 95% CI: 0.81-2.02, P = .29. The quality of the entire body of evidence was graded as moderate for risk of VTE, and low for risk of major bleeding. To summarize, DOACs were found to have a favorable effect on risk of VTE but a nonsignificant higher risk of major bleeding compared with non-DOACs in patients with cancer. The safety effect of DOACs in patients with cancer requires further evaluation in adequately powered and designed studies.
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