Anticoagulants are widely used by cardiologists. Unfractionated heparin (UFH) and coumarins were discovered more than 60 years ago, and for more than 40 years, they have been the sole anticoagulant drugs available to clinicians.1,2 Now, in 2007, several new anticoagulants have been introduced, and many more are under clinical development. Will these new anticoagulants replace the established dr...

OBJECTIVES To describe the characteristics of nursing home residents diagnosed with atrial fibrillation (AF) and eligible for oral anticoagulants who did not receive these drugs and to detail the conditions that physicians who decide not to prescribe anticoagulants take into account. DESIGN Cross-sectional. SETTING Nursing home. PARTICIPANTS Nursing home residents with a history of AF (N ...

BACKGROUND Over the past 5 years, dabigatran, rivaroxaban and apixaban were approved for stroke prevention. Phase III studies have shown a lower risk of intracranial bleeding with these direct oral anticoagulants than with warfarin; however, there is a lack of real-life data to validate this. We analyzed time trends in atraumatic intracranial bleeding from 2009 to 2013 among patients prescribed...

In patients with acute ischemic stroke, what is the comparative effectiveness of anticoagu-lants (alone or with antiplatelet agents) and antiplatelet agents alone given within 14 days of stroke onset? D a t a s o u r c e s Studies were selected if they were randomized controlled trials comparing anticoagulants with antiplatelet agents, or anticoagulants plus antiplatelet agents with antiplatele...

OBJECTIVE To critically review the effectiveness of the novel oral anticoagulants (rivaroxaban, dabigatran, ximelagatran, and apixaban) in the treatment of acute venous thromboembolism. DESIGN Systematic review and random effects meta-analysis. Data were extracted independently by two investigators. An adjusted indirect comparison was performed to compare between novel oral anticoagulants. ...

AIM To identify risk factors for post-polypectomy bleeding (PPB), focusing on antithrombotic agents. METHODS This was a case-control study based on medical records at a single center. PPB was defined as bleeding that occurred 6 h to 10 d after colonoscopic polypectomy and required endoscopic hemostasis. As risk factors for PPB, patient-related factors including anticoagulants, antiplatelets a...

BACKGROUND Large clinical trials are lack of data on non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants for acute stroke patients. AIM To evaluate the choice of oral anticoagulants at acute hospital discharge in stroke patients with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation and clarify the underlying characteristics potentially affecting that choice using the multicenter Stroke Acute Management with Urgent R...

OBJECTIVES Recent developments of new direct oral anticoagulants that target specific clotting factors necessitate understanding of coagulation biology. The objective of this tutorial is to offer dental professionals a review of coagulation mechanisms and the pharmacodynamics of the conventional and new oral anticoagulants. Also, we summarized the dental implications of the conventional and new...

For many years, anticoagulants have been used in the emergent treatment of patients with acute ischemic stroke. Anticoagulants are prescribed in an effort to prevent first or recurrent stroke, especially among patients with cardioembolism due to arterial fibrillation and large-artery atherosclerotic disease. Despite the widespread use, efficacy and safety of anticoagulants are controversial. Ex...