[Which patients with atrial fibrillation need anticoagulation?].
Atrial fibrillation is the most frequent cardiac arrhythmia and its prevalence increases with age. It is essential to prevent the thromboembolic events, stroke in particular, considered as its most serious complication. Vitamin K antagonists are currently the most effective drugs to prevent them. However, despite their proven efficacy, they carry a risk of bleeding complications. Consequently, it is essential to balance individual thromboembolic risk with the hemorrhagic risk, taking into consideration age, cardiac diseases, hypertension, diabetes, history of cerebral vascular accident, history of hemorrhagic disease and also patient's compliance. The CHADS2 score is a stratification model for stroke risk in patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation that is the easiest score to use in clinical practice and the most used one.
Service de médecine de premier recours, Département de médecine communautaire et de premier recous, Genève. Sladjana.Frtunic-Despotovic@hcuge.ch
S Frtunic
SF
Despotovic
S
S
Siewe
A
A
Keta
D000925:Anticoagulants / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001281:Atrial Fibrillation / Q000150:complications*; D006801:Humans; D018570:Risk Assessment; D020521:Stroke / Q000517:prevention & control*; D013923:Thromboembolism / Q000517:prevention & control*
D000925:Anticoagulants