Stroke

Minimally invasive surgical technique for patients with atrial fibrillation who cannot tolerate standard anticoagulant therapy uses sutures to tie off the left atrial appendage and offers increased stroke protection.

Although they had more cardiovascular comorbidities, patients with atrial fibrillation and diabetes experienced rates of ischemic stroke comparable to those in AF patients without diabetes.

Analysis of health claims data indicates that physicians are underprescribing anticoagulant treatment in large numbers of patients with atrial fibrillation who are at high risk of stroke and low risk of bleeding.

Study results presented at AHA 2013 show that nearly half of patients with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation (NVAF) are at high risk of discontinuing their medications. However, patients taking novel anticoagulants such as dabigatran or rivaroxaban were less likely to stop their medications.

One of the most important tasks for physicians treating a patient who has experienced a first unprovoked pulmonary embolism is determining how long the patient must remain on oral anticoagulants.

Presentation at CHEST 2013 reviewed key considerations surrounding the treatment of pulmonary embolism and other venous thromboembolic events with the newer class of oral anticoagulant agents.

Patients on antithrombotic therapy must be monitored for increased risk of upper GI bleeding.

This podcast reviews key information about the safe storage, handling, and dispensing of Pradaxa (dabigatran etexilate mesylate) capsules.

Millions of people in the United States require chronic anticoagulation to prevent thromboembolism secondary to chronic atrial fibrillation (AF), pulmonary hypertension, mechanical valve replacements, and other prothrombotic conditions.

We investigated 1209 patients with valvular and nonvalvular atrial fibrillation who were treated with standard anticoagulant therapy, the cyclooxygenase inhibitor triflusal, or combined therapy with triflusal and an anticoagulant. Compared with patients receiving standard anticoagulation treatment, the addition of antiplatelet therapy to reduced-intensity anticoagulation in patients stratified for risk of stroke significantly reduced the vascular event rate.

We conducted a substudy of the Rate Control Versus Electrical Cardioversion (RACE) study to evaluate cardiovascular morbidity, mortality, and the outcome of rate and rhythm control treatment in subjects with and without hypertension with persistent atrial fibrillation.