scholarly journals New Oral Anticoagulants in the Treatment of Pulmonary Embolism: Efficacy, Bleeding Risk, and Monitoring

Thrombosis ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kelly M. Rudd ◽  
Elizabeth (Lisa) M. Phillips

Anticoagulation therapy is mandatory in patients with pulmonary embolism to prevent significant morbidity and mortality. The mainstay of therapy has been vitamin-K antagonist therapy bridged with parenteral anticoagulants. The recent approval of new oral anticoagulants (NOACs: apixaban, dabigatran, and rivaroxaban) has generated significant interest in their role in managing venous thromboembolism, especially pulmonary embolism due to their improved pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic profiles, predictable anticoagulant response, and lack of required efficacy monitoring. This paper addresses the available literature, on-going clinical trials, highlights critical points, and discusses potential advantages and disadvantages of the new oral anticoagulants in patients with pulmonary embolism.

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (23) ◽  
pp. 2686-2691 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ioannis Doundoulakis ◽  
Christina Antza ◽  
Haralambos Karvounis ◽  
George Giannakoulas

Background: Anticoagulation in patients with pulmonary embolism. Objective: To identify how non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants are associated with multiple outcomes in patients with pulmonary embolism. Methods: We performed a systematic search of systematic reviews via multiple electronic databases from inception to August 19th, 2019, without language restriction. Two authors independently extracted data and assessed the methodological quality of the included systematic reviews using the ROBIS tool. Results: We found twelve systematic reviews. Eleven SRs collected their data from randomized clinical trials and one from observational studies. All the included studies were published between 2014 and 2019 in English. The methodological quality of the 12 systematic reviews was low to high. None of the systematic reviews, which are included in our overview of systematic reviews, has evaluated the overall quality of evidence outcome using the Grading of Recommendations Assessments, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) approach. Conclusion: This is the first effort to summarize evidence about non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants in an overview of systematic reviews focusing exclusively on patients with pulmonary embolism. The evidence suggests that the non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants seem to be more effective and safer than a dualdrug approach with LMWH- VKA.


2012 ◽  
Vol 38 (01) ◽  
pp. 23-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Birgitta Salmela ◽  
Lotta Joutsi-Korhonen ◽  
Elina Armstrong ◽  
Riitta Lassila

2016 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 1a
Author(s):  
Peter Kelly ◽  
Carlos Molina ◽  
Christian T. Ruff ◽  
Roland Veltkamp ◽  
◽  
...  

The rising incidence of atrial fibrillation (AF) is increasingly resulting in a substantial worldwide increase in AF-related stroke, particularly in elderly patients and this is creating an increasingly serious healthcare burden. Guidelines recommend the use of AF-related stroke prophylaxis but adherence to these remains poor. Studies conducted in the 1990s showed that warfarin reduced the risk of AF-related stroke by an overall 64% compared with placebo. Subsequently, prophylactic treatment was further improved with the development of non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants (NOACs). More recently, a meta-analysis of four large clinical trials on NOACs (dabigatran, rivaroxaban, apixaban, and edoxaban) showed there was a relative risk reduction of 0.81 (p<0.0001) favouring NOAC treatment over warfarin for stroke or systemic embolic events in patients with AF. The largest trial of NOACs in AF-related stroke, to date, was the ENGAGE AF-TIMI 48 study (n=21,105) which showed that edoxaban was non-inferior to warfarin for ischaemic stroke reduction but significantly reduced bleeding and cardiovascular mortality. A recent subgroup analysis of this study showed that with edoxaban the incidences of intracranial haemorrhage (ICH) subtypes (all ICH, fatal ICH, fatal, subdural and epidural bleed) were significantly lower with 60 mg of edoxaban (p=0.013–<0.001). Edoxaban was also shown to be an effective option in patients with prior stroke. In addition, edoxaban was shown to reduce deaths due to fatal bleeds compared with warfarin. The results of current studies, especially the ENGAGE AF-TIMI 48 subgroup analysis therefore, show that the benefits of anticoagulation therapy in patients with AF substantially outweigh the risks.


2015 ◽  
Vol 114 (11) ◽  
pp. 1076-1084 ◽  
Author(s):  
Franziska Michalski ◽  
Luise Tittl ◽  
Sebastian Werth ◽  
Ulrike Hänsel ◽  
Sven Pannach ◽  
...  

SummaryAtrial fibrillation (AF) patients treated with well-controlled vitamin K antagonists (VKAs) may benefit less from non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants (NOACs) because they are supposed to be at low risk of thromboembolic and bleeding complications. However, little is known about the selection, management, and outcome of such “stable” VKA patients in current practice. We assessed characteristics, VKA persistence and 12 months' outcome of AF patients selected for VKA continuation. On March 1, 2013, the Dresden NOAC registry opened recruitment of patients continuing on VKA for sites that had been actively recruiting AF patients treated with NOACs in the prior 18 months. Patient characteristics were compared with those of NOAC patients from the same sites. Four hundred twenty-seven VKA patients had a significantly lower bleeding risk profile compared with 706 patients selected for NOAC treatment. For VKA, international normalised ratio time-in-therapeutic range before enrolment was 71% and increased to 75% during a mean follow-up of 15 months. Rates of stroke/transient ischaemic attack/systemic embolism were 1.3/100 patient-years (intention-to-treat) and 0.94/100 patient-years (as-treated). On-treatment rate of ISTH major bleeding was 4.15/100 patient-years (95% CI 2.60–6.29) with a case-fatality rate of 16.3% (all-cause mortality at day 90 after major bleeding). In conclusion, in daily care, AF patients selected for VKA therapy are healthier than those treated with NOAC, demonstrate a high quality of anticoagulant control and very low stroke rates. However, despite adequate patient selection and INR control, the risk of major VKA bleeding is unacceptably high and bleeding outcome is poor.


2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 623-627 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cláudia Marques-Matos ◽  
José Nuno Alves ◽  
João Pedro Marto ◽  
Joana Afonso Ribeiro ◽  
Ana Monteiro ◽  
...  

Background There is a lower reported incidence of intracranial hemorrhage with non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants compared with vitamin K antagonist. However, the functional outcome and mortality of intracranial hemorrhage patients were not assessed. Aims To compare the outcome of vitamin K antagonists- and non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants-related intracranial hemorrhage. Methods We included consecutive patients with acute non-traumatic intracranial hemorrhage on oral anticoagulation therapy admitted between January 2013 and June 2015 at four university hospitals. Clinical and demographic data were obtained from individual medical records. Intracranial hemorrhage was classified as intracerebral, extra-axial, or multifocal using brain computed tomography. Three-month functional outcome was assessed using the modified Rankin Scale. Results Among 246 patients included, 24 (9.8%) were anticoagulated with a non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants and 222 (90.2%) with a vitamin K antagonists. Non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants patients were older (81.5 vs. 76 years, p = 0.048) and had intracerebral hemorrhage more often (83.3% vs. 63.1%, p = 0.048). We detected a non-significant trend for larger intracerebral hemorrhage volumes in vitamin K antagonists patients ( p = 0.368). Survival analysis adjusted for age, CHA2DS2VASc, HAS-BLED, and anticoagulation reversal revealed that non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants did not influence three-month mortality (hazard ratio (HR) = 0.83, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.39–1.80, p = 0.638). Multivariable ordinal regression for three-month functional outcome did not show a significant shift of modified Rankin Scale scores in non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants patients (odds ratio (OR) 1.26, 95%CI 0.55–2.87, p = 0.585). Conclusions We detected no significant differences in the three-month outcome between non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants- and vitamin K antagonists-associated intracranial hemorrhage, despite unavailability of non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants-specific reversal agents.


2021 ◽  
Vol 96 (4) ◽  
pp. 296-311
Author(s):  
Ki Hong Lee ◽  
Jin-Bae Kim ◽  
Seung Yong Shin ◽  
Boyoung Joung

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a strong risk factor for ischemic stroke and systemic embolism. To prevent thromboembolic events in patients with AF, anticoagulation therapy is essential. The anticoagulant strategy is determined after stroke and bleeding risk assessments using the CHA2DS2-VASc and HAS-BLED scores, respectively; both consider clinical risk factors. Vitamin K antagonists (VKAs) are the sole anticoagulant option in AF patients with a prosthetic mechanical valve or moderate-severe mitral stenosis; in all other AF patients VKA or non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants are therapeutic options. However, antiplatelet therapy should not be used for stroke prevention in AF patients. Anticoagulation is not needed in AF patients with low stroke risk but strongly recommended in those with a with low bleeding risk. Left atrial appendage (LAA) occlusion offers an alternative in AF patients in whom long-term anticoagulation is contraindicated. Surgical occlusion or the exclusion of LAA can be considered for stroke prevention in AF patients undergoing cardiac surgery. In this article, we review existing data for stroke prevention and suggest optimal strategies to prevent stroke in AF patients.


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