Once versus twice daily direct oral anticoagulants in patients with recent stroke and atrial fibrillation.

Polymeris, Alexandros A; Zietz, Annaelle; Schaub, Fabian; Meya, Louisa; Traenka, Christopher; Thilemann, Sebastian; Wagner, Benjamin; Hert, Lisa; Altersberger, Valerian L; Seiffge, David J; Lyrer, Flurina; Dittrich, Tolga; Piot, Ines; Kaufmann, Josefin; Barone, Lea; Dahlheim, Ludvig; Flammer, Sophie; Avramiotis, Nikolaos S; Peters, Nils; De Marchis, Gian Marco; ... (2022). Once versus twice daily direct oral anticoagulants in patients with recent stroke and atrial fibrillation. European stroke journal, 7(3), pp. 221-229. Sage 10.1177/23969873221099477

Text 23969873221099477.pdf - Published Version Restricted to registered users only Available under License Publisher holds Copyright. Download (761kB) | Request a copy

Background

Data on the safety and effectiveness of once-daily (QD) versus twice-daily (BID) direct oral anticoagulants (DOAC) in comparison to vitamin K antagonists (VKA) and to one another in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) and recent stroke are scarce.

Patients and methods

Based on prospectively obtained data from the observational registry Novel-Oral-Anticoagulants-in-Ischemic-Stroke-Patients(NOACISP)-LONGTERM (NCT03826927) from Basel, Switzerland, we compared the occurrence of the primary outcome - the composite of recurrent ischemic stroke, major bleeding, and all-cause death - among consecutive AF patients treated with either VKA, QD DOAC, or BID DOAC following a recent stroke using Cox proportional hazards regression including adjustment for potential confounders.

Results

We analyzed 956 patients (median age 80 years, 46% female), of whom 128 received VKA (13.4%), 264 QD DOAC (27.6%), and 564 BID DOAC (59%). Over a total follow-up of 1596 patient-years, both QD DOAC and BID DOAC showed a lower hazard for the composite outcome compared to VKA (adjusted HR [95% CI] 0.69 [0.48, 1.01] and 0.66 [0.47, 0.91], respectively). Upon direct comparison, the hazard for the composite outcome did not differ between patients treated with QD versus BID DOAC (adjusted HR [95% CI] 0.94 [0.70, 1.26]). Secondary analyses focusing on the individual components of the composite outcome revealed no clear differences in the risk-benefit profile of QD versus BID DOAC.

Discussion and conclusion

The overall benefit of DOAC over VKA seems to apply to both QD and BID DOAC in AF patients with a recent stroke, without clear evidence that one DOAC dosing regimen is more advantageous than the other.

Interest & Impact

Downloads

0 since deposited on 13 Sep 2022
0 in the past 12 months

Citations

5 Citations in Web of Science ®
6 Citations in Scopus

Search

in Google Scholar™

Services

Actions (login required)

Edit item

Actions (login required)

Edit item