Vitamin K antagonists in patients with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation

Development and validation of hospital information system-generated indicators of the appropriateness of oral anticoagulant prescriptions in hospitalised adults: the PACHA study protocol

INTRODUCTION

The appropriateness of oral anticoagulant prescriptions is a major challenge to improve quality and safety of care. As indicators of the appropriateness of oral anticoagulant prescriptions are lacking, the aim of the study is to develop and validate a panel of such indicators, in hospitalised adults, from the hospital information system of two university hospitals in France.

METHODS AND ANALYSIS

The study will be carried out in four steps: (1) a literature review to identify indicators of the appropriateness of oral anticoagulant prescriptions and their conditions of appropriateness; (2) a Delphi consensus method to assess the potential utility and operational implementation of the selected indicators; (3) techniques of medical data search to implement indicators from the hospital information system and; (4) a cross-sectional study to assess the ability of indicators to detect inappropriate oral anticoagulant prescriptions, performance of medical data search techniques for tracking or retrieving information and the ability of tools to be transferred into other institutions. The fourth step will include up to 80 patient hospital stays for each indicator, depending on the prevalence of inappropriate prescriptions estimated in interim analyses.

ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION

This work addresses the current lack of quality indicators of the appropriateness of oral anticoagulant prescriptions. We aim to develop and validate such indicators for integrating them into hospital clinical practice, as part of a structured approach to improve quality and safety of care. As each hospital information system is different, we will propose tools transferable to other healthcare institutions to allow an automated construction of these indicators. The PACHA study protocol was approved by institutional review boards and ethics committees (CPP Sud-Ouest et Outre Mer III-DC 2016/119; CPP Ile-de-France II-CDW_2016_0014).

REGISTRATION DETAILS

Clinical Trial.gov registration: NCT02898090.

Non-valvular atrial fibrillation: potential clinical implications of the heterogeneous definitions used in trials on new oral anticoagulants

AIMS

To evaluate the potential impact of the different definitions of non-valvular atrial fibrillation reported in the literature and to analyse the possible implications for eligibility for novel oral anticoagulants (NOACs) in clinical practice.

METHODS

We derived the definitions of 'non-valvular atrial fibrillation' from the exclusion criteria of the trials on NOACs, and then assessed the number and percentage of patients fulfilling the various definitions in a cohort of 500 consecutive atrial fibrillation patients, undergoing clinical and echocardiographic evaluation in our cardiology department, as either in-patients or out-patients.

RESULTS

Among the 500 atrial fibrillation patients (mean age 71.2 ± 12.6 years), with permanent atrial fibrillation in 45.2% of the cases, hypertension was very common, either as the main diagnosis or as an associated disease. Valvular heart disease as the main diagnosis (including valvular prosthesis) accounted for 22.8% of the cases. At the echocardiographic evaluation, valvular alterations were very common, especially mitral regurgitation (present, with a variable degree of severity in 63.6% of the cases). Application of the RE-LY exclusion criteria with regard to valvular disease resulted in 116 (23.2%) patients of our cohort classified as valvular atrial fibrillation. This percentage was reduced to 12.2 and 8.8% if ROCKET-AF and ARISTOTLE/ENGAGE-AF criteria, respectively, were applied.

CONCLUSIONS

Non-valvular atrial fibrillation is a common clinical entity, but without a unified definition in the literature. The impact in daily practice of the different definitions adopted in trials is noteworthy, since in one patient out of seven, the eligibility for NOACs can be questioned, simply as a consequence of adopting a more or less restrictive definition.

The prestroke use of vitamin K antagonists for atrial fibrillation - trends over 15 years

BACKGROUND

Effective anticoagulation with vitamin K antagonists (VKAs) is the standard of stroke prevention in patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation (AF). Although, everyday practice is becoming increasingly guideline-driven, proper anticoagulation is still problematic. We aimed to investigate changes in the use of VKAs for stroke prevention in patients with AF admitted because of acute stroke over a period of 15 years.

METHODS

We analysed consecutive acute stroke patients admitted to our centre between June 1995 and December 2010. Data were prospectively collected in a detailed stroke registry. We distinguished between three periods: 1995-2000 (used as reference for comparisons), 2001-2005 and 2006-2010.

RESULTS

The AF rate prior to stroke was similar in ischaemic stroke patients (1995-2000: 25%, 2001-2005: 24%, 2006-2010: 24%) but increased in patients with intracerebral haemorrhage (ICH) (6%, 11%, 19%, p = 0.003 since 2006). The proportion of patients with AF using VKAs before stroke has became higher in ischaemic stroke (10%, 16%, 28%, p < 0.001 since 2006) with non-significant trend in ICH (0%, 33%, 45%). The proportion of ischaemic strokes occurring in patients with AF using VKAs with INR < 2 tended to increase over time (58%, 83%, 80.3%). There was also tendency towards increasing proportion of ICHs occurring in patients with AF over treated with VKAs (INR > 3).

CONCLUSIONS

The prescription rate of VKA for stroke prevention appears to be improving. However, because of a high proportion of patients on non-therapeutic INR, the proportion of cardioembolic ischaemic strokes remains stable. It may suggest that everyday use of VKAs is still far from optimal.

Adherence to guidelines and mortality in atrial fibrillation

OBJECTIVE

Determining the adherence to ACC/AHA/ESC 2006 guidelines and its influence on the survival of patients with atrial fibrillation.

METHODS

Prospective observational study of patients discharged during 2007 from an Internal Medicine department with a main or secondary diagnose of atrial fibrillation. The stroke risk was estimated with the CHADS2 score. The follow-up was carried out in outpatient medical office or via telephone.

RESULTS

We included 259 patients (mean age 80.9 years); 73% of them had a high risk of stroke. Oral anticoagulants were administered to 134 (51.7%), and antiplatelet drugs to 71 (27%) patients. A rate control strategy was chosen for 155 (59.8%) patients and a rhythm control one for 28 (10.8%). In 100 (38.6%) patients, treatment was adherent to the guidelines. Adherence to the guidelines was associated with age (0.95 95%CI 0.92-0.99; p=0.03), contraindication to the use of oral anticoagulants (0.38 95%CI 0.18-0.81; p=0.01) and mitral valve heart disease/valvular prosthesis (2.10 95%CI 1.04-4.25; p=0.04). The median follow-up was 727 days, and 191 patients died. Patients treated according to the guidelines had a higher rate of survival during the first three years (0.47 vs. 0.36; p=0.049). The use of oral anticoagulants was associated with a higher probability of survival over a 5 year period (0.34 vs 0.21; p=0.001) and the rate control strategy during the first year (0.69 vs 0.57; p=0.04).

CONCLUSIONS

In the real world, the treatment of atrial fibrillation according to the guidelines is associated with improved survival for up to three years during follow-up.