Atrial Fibrillation and the Risk of Ischemic Stroke

Does It Still Matter in Patients With a CHA₂DS₂-VASc Score of 0 or 1?

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is an independent risk factor for stroke. Recent studies have demonstrated that the CHA₂DS₂-VASc scheme is useful for selecting patients who are truly at low risk. The goal of the present study was to compare the risk of ischemic stroke among AF patients with a CHA₂DS₂-VASc score of 0 (male) or 1 (female) with those without AF.

Methods—The study enrolled 509 males (CHA₂DS₂-VASc score=0) and 320 females (CHA₂DS₂-VASc score=1) with AF who did not receive any antithrombotic therapy. Patients were selected from the National Health Insurance Research Database in Taiwan. For each study patient, 10 age-matched and sex-matched subjects without AF and without any comorbidity from the CHA₂DS₂-VASc scheme were selected as controls. The clinical end point was the occurrence of ischemic stroke. Read more