Antithrombotic therapy in multimorbid patients with atrial fibrillation from standpoint of clinical recommendations of Ministry of Health of Russian Federation (2020). Effectiveness and safety of apixaban in patients with atrial fibrillation and concomitant diseases
Clinical practice and ongoing scientific research in recent years show the importance of the problem of multimorbidity in atrial fibrillation (AF). The prevalence of AF in the general population is 1–2%, while the frequency of its occurrence increases with age – from less than 0.5% at the age of 40–50 to 5–15% at the age of 80. Only 19.6% of patients with AF have no comorbidities, 69.3% of patients have 1 to 3 comorbidities, and 11.1% of patients with AF had 4 and more comorbidities. In patients with AF and with 4 and more comorbidities, the risk of death from all causes is almost seven times higher than in patients without comorbidities. As shown by the post hoc analysis of the ARISTOTLE study, apixaban was equally effective and safe in both patients without concomitant pathology and in muliborbid patients. The efficacy and safety of apixaban has been shown in AF and concomitant arterial hypertension, heart failure, coronary heart disease, including in patients with acute coronary syndrome, diabetes mellitus, chronic kidney disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The data of scientific research in recent years are reflected in the recommendations of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation on AF (2020), which presents a separate section on the management of patients with concomitant diseases. It is emphasized that apixaban has shown its superiority over warfarin and other direct oral anticoagulants in terms of efficacy and safety, both in isolated AF and in patients with concomitant diseases, which makes its choice preferable in the treatment of multimirbidity AF patients.