Comparison of frequency of silent cerebral infarction as assessed by serum neuron specific enolase in patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation: Warfarin versus direct oral anticoagulant

Background Cerebral infarction in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) may clinically vary from being silent to catastrophic. Silent cerebral infarction (SCI) is the neuronal injury in the absence of clinically appearent stroke or transient ischaemic attack. Serum neuron specific enolase (NSE) is suggested to be a valid surrogate biomarker that allows to detect recent neuronal injury. We aimed to evaluate the incidence of recent SCI by positive NSE levels in patients with non-valvular AF (NVAF) on oral anticoagulants.Methods Blood samples for NSE were collected from 197 consecutive NVAF patients. NSE levels of greater than 12 ng/ml was considered as positive and suggestive of SCI.Results Patients were mainly female with a mean age of 69 years. Ninety-eight of them (49.7%) were taking warfarin. Mean INR level was 2.3 ± 0.9. Mean CHA2DS2-VASc score of the study population was 3.5 ± 1.5. Seventy-two patients (36.5%) were found to have NSE elevation. They were more likely to have history of chronic heart failure and previous stroke/TIA. Increased left atrial diameter and higher CHA2DS2-VASc were other factors associated with SCI. Patients on DOACs and patients taking aspirin on top of oral anticoagulant treatment were less likely to have SCI. Multivariate analysis demonstrated that increased left atrial diameter (OR: 2.5; 95% CI: 1.52–4; p < 0.001) and use of warfarin (OR: 2.8; 95% CI: 1.37–5.61; p = 0.005) were detected as independent predictors of SCI.Conclusions Our study revealed that DOACs were associated with significantly reduced SCIs compared with warfarin, probably due to more effective and consistent therapeutic level of anticoagulation.