Dabigatran etexilate is one of the new oral anticoagulants approved to reduce the risk of stroke in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF). A variety of bleeding complications with dabigatran have been reported, but reports of hemopericardium are rare. We described a case of a 66 year-old female patient with non-valvular AF receiving dabigatran etexilate 150 mg twice daily for one year who suff...

OBJECTIVE Thrombin has multiple proatherogenic effects including platelet activation and the induction of inflammatory processes. Recently, the cytokine oncostatin M has been shown to have proinflammatory effects. This study was designed to investigate the effects of thrombin inhibition on the initiation and progression of atherosclerosis and on the expression of oncostatin M. METHODS Apolipo...

OBJECTIVES Dabigatran is a direct thrombin inhibitor shown to be an effective alternative to warfarin in patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation (AF). We evaluated the use of dabigatran in patients with bioprosthetic mitral and/or aortic valve replacement and AF. METHODS We selected 34 and randomized 27 patients in a 1:1 ratio to receive dabigatran or warfarin. The primary endpoint was...

OBJECTIVE Our objective was to compare all-cause and stroke- and bleed-specific healthcare costs among patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation (NVAF) treated with dabigatran or warfarin. METHODS Administrative claims data from the MarketScan® Databases for 2009-2014 were used. Patients with NVAF newly treated with dabigatran were matched 1:1 to those treated with warfarin. All-cause an...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Dabigatran is an oral direct thrombin inhibitor that is Food and Drug Administration-approved for prevention of stroke in patients with atrial fibrillation. No antidote is available for reversal of dabigatran's anticoagulant effect. Despite limited clinical data, hemodialysis has been suggested as a strategy to remove dabigatran during acute bleeding. This work present...

BACKGROUND Dabigatran is an oral direct thrombin inhibitor that has been shown to be an effective alternative to warfarin in patients with atrial fibrillation. We evaluated the use of dabigatran in patients with mechanical heart valves. METHODS In this phase 2 dose-validation study, we studied two populations of patients: those who had undergone aortic- or mitral-valve replacement within the ...

BACKGROUND Atrial fibrillation is a major risk factor for stroke, which causes thousands of deaths and sequelae. It is recommended that atrial fibrillation patients at medium or high risk of stroke use an oral anticoagulant to reduce the risk of stroke. In the past few years, three new oral anticoagulants (NOACs), dabigatran, rivaroxaban, and apixaban, have been introduced in competition to the...

OBJECTIVE This was an evaluation of the cost-effectiveness of oral dabigatran etexilate compared with subcutaneous low-molecular-weight heparin (enoxaparin) for the prevention of venous thromboembolism (VTE) after total knee replacement (TKR) and total hip replacement (THR) surgery from the perspective of the UK National Health Service. METHODS Dabigatran etexilate (220 mg once daily) was com...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the use of dabigatran versus warfarin on time to elective direct current cardioversion (DCCV). METHODOLOGY This retrospective observational study was conducted at a single Veterans Affairs hospital in the Southwestern region of the U.S. Patients with atrial fibrillation or atrial flutter who were initiated on either warfarin or dabigatran prior to DCCV were reviewed. The...

Atrial fibrillation (AF) affects millions worldwide. Stroke is the most devastating complication of AF and is associated with a huge disease burden. As a preventive measure, anticoagulant therapy is recommended for most AF patients based on presence of stroke risk factors. For the past six decades warfarin remained the gold standard for stroke prevention in AF (SPAF). However, it is associated ...