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Published at www.nejm.org August 30, 2009 (10.1056/NEJMe0906886)

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In patients with atrial fibrillation, warfarin prevents 64% of strokes.¹ Thus, warfarin has become the recommended treatment for candidates for anticoagulation therapy who have atrial fibrillation and at least one additional risk factor for stroke.²

Despite clear and consistent recommendations,³ warfarin is prescribed to only two thirds of appropriate candidates.⁴ Several factors contribute to suboptimal use of warfarin therapy: drug and dietary interactions, inconvenience of monitoring the international normalized ratio (INR), risk of hemorrhage, and concerns about real-world effectiveness, which averages 35%.⁴ Thus, new oral anticoagulants are needed.

Dabigatran etexilate, an oral thrombin inhibitor, appears to be an anticoagulant that . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Source Information

From Washington University, St. Louis.

This article (10.1056/NEJMe0906886) was published on August 30, 2009, at NEJM.org.

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