Background:
Current guidelines recommend against the use of direct oral anticoagulation (DOAC) therapy in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) in the setting of significant liver disease (LD) due to lack of evidence in safety and efficacy studies. However, recently studies have investigated the role of DOAC in comparison to Vitamin K antagonist (VKA) in this category of patients. Therefore, we conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to evaluate the efficacy and safety of this approach.
Hypothesis:
DOAC is safe and effective compared to VKA in AF with LD patients.
Method:
Unrestricted search of the PubMed, EMBASE, and Cochrane databases performed from inception until June 1, 2020 for studies comparing DOAC with VKA including more than 100 AF patients with LD. Relevant data were extracted and analyzed using Revman 5.3 software. Hazard ratio (HR) and 95% Confidence interval (CI) were calculated using the random-effects model.
Result:
A total of 5 studies (3 retrospective and 2 post hoc analysis) were included examining 39,064 patients with AF and LD (25,398 DOAC vs 13,669 VKA). DOAC is associated with lower risk of major bleeding compared to VKA with a HR of 0.68 (95% CI 0.47-0.98; I
2
=53%), all-cause mortality (HR 0.74;95% CI 0.59-0.94; I
2
=61%), and intracranial bleeding (HR 0.48; 95% CI 0.40-0.58; I
2
=0). There was no significant difference in ischemic stroke risk (HR 0.73; 95% CI 0.47-1.14; I
2
=72%) and gastrointestinal bleeding risk (0.96; 95% CI 0.61-1.51; I
2
=41%) between DOAC and VKA.
Conclusion:
DOAC is non-inferior to VKA regarding ischemic stroke prevention in AF patients with LD. Moreover, DOAC is associated with a lower risk of major bleeding, intracranial bleeding and all-cause mortality. Further randomized trials are needed to validate our findings.
Peri-Procedural Management of Novel Oral Anticoagulant and Vitamin K Antagonist in Atrial Fibrillation Ablation: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
