Heart: Relationship between the deactivation of oral anticoagulants and the risk of ischemic stroke in patients with atrial fibrillation

A recent study published in Heart, an authoritative journal in the field of cardiology, aims to assess the link between the deactivation of oral anticoagulants (OAC) and the risk of ischemic stroke (IS) in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF).
researchers conducted a case-based, nested population study using the UK's IQVIA Medical Research Data-UK and related registers from southern Denmark (RSD).
researchers followed AF patients (76,882 UK participants and 41,526 RSD participants) to determine IS events for the period 2016-2018.
researchers matched IS cases by age and gender and used logistic regression to calculate the deactivation of OAC's adjusted OR (as opposed to current OAC usage).
identified 616 IS incidents from the UK database and 643 IS incidents from the RSD database.
OR resulting from the deactivation of any OAC is 2.99 (95% CI 2.31 to 3.86, UK) and 2.30 (95% CI is 1.79 to 2.95, RSD), while deactivation of vitamin K antagonists is 2.38 (95% CI is 1.72 to 3.30) UK) and 1.83 (95% CI 1.34 to 2.49, RSD), deactivate non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants 4.59 (95% CI 2.97 to 7.08, UK) and 3.37 (95% CI 2.35 to 4.85, RSD), respectively.
987 and 132 IS cases a year in the UK and Denmark could have been prevented if OAC treatment had not been discontinued.
, the results showed that AF patients who stopped OAC treatment were twice to three times more likely to develop IS than those who continued treatment.
the OAC suspension problem may result in a significant reduction in IS caused by AF.
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