The concurrent use of antithrombotic therapies and the risk of bleeding in patients with atrial fibrillation

Schattauer: March 5, 2013

Summary

Patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) often receive, in addition to warfarin, antithrombotic drugs to manage other comorbid conditions. To date, few population-based studies have quantified the bleeding risk associated with the concurrent use of these therapies. The United Kingdom General Practice Research Database was used to identify a cohort of 70,760 patients newly-diagnosed with AF between 1993 and 2008. A nested case-control analysis was conducted within that cohort, and conditional logistic regression was used to estimate adjusted rate ratios (RRs) of bleeding associated with current use of warfarin, aspirin, and clopidogrel in single therapy, as well as in dual and triple therapy, as compared with non-use of any therapy. A total of 10,850 patients experienced a bleeding event during follow-up. Read more