Optimal choice of pharmacological therapy – Prevention of stroke and assessment of bleeding risk in patients with atrial fibrillation

Abstract

Background: The aim of the study was to highlight the importance of adequate anticoagulant therapy and the correlation of higher risk of stroke. Methods: This study analyzed data obtained from 103 patients with diagnosis of atrial fibrillation (AF) (39 of them had a stroke). Patients were divided into groups according to the CHADS₂, CHA₂DS₂-VASc, and HASBLED scores. Results: An analysis showed that anticoagulant drugs were more often prescribed to subjects <75 years of age (P = 0.001). Patients with a higher CHADS₂ score had a higher CHA₂DS₂-VASc score and vice versa (rho = 0.513; P = 0.0001). According to the CHA₂DS₂-VASc, 91.3% of the patients examined were prescribed an anticoagulant medication as a therapy at discharge from the hospital. The result was statistically significant compared to the practice where an anticoagulant was prescribed to 55.9% of high-risk subjects as estimated by the CHA₂DS₂-VASc score (P < 0.05). Our results also show that rivaroxaban is more commonly prescribed as a discharge therapy than warfarin (χ² = 12.401; P = 0.0001). Furthermore, a significantly higher number of patients who were being prescribed aspirin (38.5%) had a stroke compared to 12.8% of patients who were being prescribed warfarin (χ² = 12.259; P = 0.0001). Conclusions: Novel oral anticoagulants (NOACs) seem to be a better choice as a pharmacological therapy in the treatment of AF, due to a lack of adequate monitoring of patients' international normalized ratio (INR) values. CHA₂DS₂-VASc and HASBLED scores must be used as a part of routine clinical diagnostics when dealing with patients with AF.