Despite their proven efficacy in stroke prevention, oral anticoagulants remain significantly underutilized in patients with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation.
Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a leading cause of stroke. Oral anticoagulant (OAC) therapy can significantly reduce the risk of stroke in patients with AF, but underuse of OACs for stroke prevention continues to be a serious clinical problem, with significant deleterious impact on outcomes. We review the studies demonstrating OAC underutilization and evaluating strategies for promoting the increased use of OAC therapy for stroke prevention in nonvalvular AF (NVAF) patients, including in special patient populations.
Hsu et al. (Fri,) studied this question.