Stroke: Improving on Drug Treatment for Patients at Risk of Falling

Reducing the risk that stroke patients face of falling can be a matter of chosing proper oral anticoagulants. Reporting at the American Heart Association 2015 Scientific Sessions, in Orlando, FL, researchers said that edoxaban (Savaysa/Daiichi Sankyo) offers an advantage over warfarin.

The drug got US Food and Drug Administration approval in January, 2015.

Jan Steffel of the University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland and coleagues elsewhere looked at patients judged to be at increased risk of falling in the ENGAGE AF-TIMI trial.

These patients had a median age of 77, and a higher prevalence of co-morbidities in cluding prior stroke or TIA, diabetes and coronary arter disease.

Patients at increased risk of falling showed a higher risk for stroke or systemic embolism, major bleeding, and bon fractures.

No treatment interaction was observed in patients facing this higher risk. But it ws ob served that there were no fatal bleeds in patients who took edoxaban rather than warfarin.

"A larger absolute risk reduction was observed under edoxaban compared to warfarin in patients with (vs. without) increased risk of falling gor intracranial hemorrhage and life-threatening bleeding," the researchers noted in an abstract.

This high-risk subgroup of patients "demonstrate consistent efficacy and safety with edoxaban as compared to well-managed warfarin," they wrote.