Heart 2009;95:95-97
FEATURED EDITORIAL
Stroke prevention in atrial fibrillation: better use of anticoagulation and new agents will lead to improved outcomes
Population Health Research Institute, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Dr R Nieuwlaat, Population Health Research Institute, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario L8P4S4, Canada; Robby.Nieuwlaat@phri.ca
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
It is widely recognised that stroke is a major hazard for patients with atrial fibrillation (AF). Antithrombotic therapy is the most important management consideration owing to the high risk of stroke and the availability of treatment, proven by clinical trials. Aspirin reduces the risk of stroke by 22% compared with placebo, and oral anticoagulation (OAC) reduces this risk a further 30–50% compared with aspirin.1 However, OAC also increases the risk of bleeding, which partly offsets its beneficial effect. Another drawback of OAC is that it requires regular blood monitoring to maintain the international normalised ratio (INR) within the optimal therapeutic window, which is between 2.0 and 3.0 for AF.2 Balancing each patient’s risk of stroke and of bleeding should help decide whether treatment with aspirin or OAC is most appropriate.
Several clinical stroke risk factors in AF have been identified. There is a strong predictive value of previous stroke or
CiteULike 
Complore 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us 
Digg 
Reddit 
Technorati What's this?
- Full Text
- Full Text (PDF)
-
All Versions of this Article:
hrt.2008.157248v1
95/2/95 most recent - 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
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.
