EDITORIALS
Alternatives to warfarin in atrial fibrillation: drugs and devices
1 CardioVascular Center Frankfurt, Sankt Katharinen, Frankfurt, Germany
2 Washington Hospital Center, Washington, DC, USA
Correspondence to:
Professor H Sievert, CardioVascular Center Frankfurt, Seckbacher Landstrasse 65, 60389 Frankfurt, Germany; Washington Hospital Center, 110 Irving Street NW, Suite 4B-1, Washington DC, 20010, USA; HorstSievertMD@aol.com
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
Atrial fibrillation is a common cardiac arrhythmia with a higher prevalence in the elderly. It is more common in men than in women at all ages.1 It may cause a reduced cardiac output and formation of atrial thrombi, especially in the left atrial appendage.2 Atrial fibrillation is associated with a fivefold increased risk for stroke and embolism3 and accounts for as much as one-sixth of all ischaemic strokes.4 These strokes tend to be more severe than cerebral embolisms caused by other sources, probably owing to the larger size of thrombi in atrial fibrillation.5 6
In this editorial, we discuss different medical, surgical and catheter-based approaches to the prevention of stroke in patients with non-rheumatic atrial fibrillation.
MEDICAL TREATMENT OF ATRIAL FIBRILLATION
Several randomised studies such as the AFFIRM and the RACE trial have demonstrated the benefit of anticoagulation treatment in patients with both rhythm- and rate-controlled atrial fibrillation.
With a stroke risk reduction of almost 70%,
CiteULike 
Complore 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us 
Digg 
Reddit 
Technorati What's this?
Relevant Article
- Occluding the left atrial appendage: anatomical considerations
- P Su, K P McCarthy, and S Y Ho
Heart 2008 94: 1166-1170.[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
This article has been cited by other articles:
-
Camm, A. J., Kirchhof, P., Lip, G. Y.H., Savelieva, I., Ernst, S.
(2009). CHAPTER 29 Atrial Fibrillation. ESC Textbook of Cardiovascular Medicine
2: med-9780199566990-chapter-med-9780199566990-chapter
[Abstract] [Full Text]
- Full Text
- Full Text (PDF)
- Submit a response
- Alert me when this article is cited
- Alert me when eLetters are posted
- Alert me if a correction is posted
- Citation Map
Services
- Email this link to a friend
- Similar articles in this journal
- Similar articles in PubMed
- Add article to my folders
- Download to citation manager
- Request Permissions
Citing Articles
Google Scholar
PubMed
Topic Collections
-
Drugs: cardiovascular system
-
Epidemiology
-
Interventional cardiology
- Percutaneous intervention
- Relevant Article
Bookmark with
Register for free content
The full back archive is now available for all BMJ Journals. Institutional subscribers may access the entire archive as part of their subscription. Personal subscribers will also have access to all content when logged in. Non-subscribers who register have free access to all articles published before 2006 right back to volume 1 issue 1. Register here to access the free archive of all BMJ Journals.
Don't forget to sign up for content alerts so you keep up to date with all the articles as they are published.
