Papercut: Apixaban for Stroke prevention in Subclinical Atrial Fibrillation
May 01, 2024
The first thing you might say is, "Why's should I care about subclinical Atrial Fibrillation, I work in Emergency Medicine?" Perhaps, this will guide us to making better decisions on anticoagulation in patients who present with their first episode of Atrial Fibrillation and we need to cardiovert them. The decision making process, other than for the highest risk patients is not that clear.
Atrial fibrillation is the most common arrhythmia we see in the emergency department. It is the leading cause of stroke(1) and although we reduce that risk with anticoagulation, we then increase the risk of potential bleeding(2). We need to weigh up these two risks and determine if we treat or not.
Subclinical atrial fibrillation is asymptomatic atrial fibrillation, or atrial fibrillation causing non-specific symptoms, that are not clinically detected... Login to read more.
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