Author Interviews, Heart Disease, JAMA, Stroke / 04.05.2016
Anticoagulants Remove Excess Stroke Risk Posed By Atrial Fibrillation
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr. Ben Freedman OAM
Deputy Director Research Strategy, Heart Research Institute/Charles Perkins Centre
Professor of Cardiology, Sydney Medical School
Head Vascular Biology Anzac Research Institute
Honorary VMO, Concord Repatriation General Hospital
University of Sydney
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Dr. Freedman: Guidelines recommend that patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) at high enough risk for stroke should be treated with anticoagulant. Anticoagulant drugs are remarkably effective in reducing stroke risk by about two thirds, and death by between a quarter and a third. Unfortunately, strokes can still occur when patients are prescribed anticoagulant for Atrial Fibrillation, and it is often presumed this residual risk of stroke represents treatment failure, though there are few data about this important issue.
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings?
Dr. Freedman: We were able to compare the risk of stroke in a cohort of patients with AF commenced on anticoagulant, with a very large closely-matched cohort seen in general practice at the same time but without AF. This is a unique comparison. We found that the residual risk of stroke in such anticoagulant-treated patients was virtually identical to that in the matched control cohort. The implication is that the residual risk of stroke may not be treatment failure, but the risk of non-cardioembolic stroke in people of a similar age and stroke risk profile but without Atrial Fibrillation. The residual risk of death in those on anticoagulant was higher than the matched controls, and intermediate between the control rate and the mortality rate for untreated AF.
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