Atrial Fibrillation and Stroke
Year: 2011
Type: conference-paper
Abstract: Patients with atrial fi brillation have a 4 to 5-fold increased risk of stroke due to embolism of thrombus in the left atrium [1]. Stroke risk varies depending on the presence or absence of several risk factors for cardiovascular disease [2,3], which were also used for creating a risk stratifi cation schemes for thromboembolism. Th e risk of thromboembolism is devided into low, intermediate, and high risk strata [4]. Given the limitations of oral anticoagulation treatment with vitamin K antagonists, such risk stratifi cation allows clinicians to target patients at “high risk” for treatment with vitamin K antagonists. For the intermediate risk category, guidelines recommend treatment with vitamin K antagonists or aspirin, and aspirin is recommended for the low risk category. Schemes for stratifying the risk of stroke have been largely derived from non-anticoagulation arms of clinical trial cohorts, in which many potential thromboembolic risk factors were not recorded. In these historical trials, less than 10% of patients screened were randomised, and over the past 15-20 years the evolution of risk schemes has not improved their predictive value for patients at high risk [5].
Author: Bojana Žvan
Language: English
Subfield: Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W576277913