Apixaban: an anticoagulant less likely to cause bleeding

A new anticoagulant reduces the risk of major bleeding by 34% in patients with atrial fibrillation according to the results of a study published in the medical journal British Medical Journal .

Researchers at the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom conducted a study to compare the effects of 4 drugs, warfarin, apixaban, dabigatran and rivaroxaban. Warfarin, the oldest of the treatments, has been prescribed for decades to fight against the formation of blood clots that cause strokes of heart attacks or deep vein thrombosis (DVT)

These drugs are also used in patients with unstable heart rhythm or atrial fibrillation. These anticoagulants cause bleeding in the stomach or the brain.

The researchers badyzed the medical data of 196,061 patients who had been treated with one of the anticoagulants between 2011 and 2016, especially those causing side and adverse effects that major bleeding requiring hospitalization, stroke, DVT or death

With apixaban, the number of bleeds is reduced

The results of the study showed that:

half of treated patients was diagnosed with atrial fibrillation (AF).

Volunteers on warfarin are at greater risk of bleeding than those on apixaban;

Warfarin caused 26.54 to 30 , 29 major bleeds / 1,000 people and / year;

and apixaban 16,62 to 22,29 (according to the database badyzed) major bleeding / 1,000 people and / year.

"There is a decrease 34% of the risk of major bleeding in people with AF and a 40% decrease in patients without AF, who take anticoagulant apixaban ", concluded Yana Vinogradova, author of the study.

See also:

Men and women are not equal to atrial fibrillation

Atrial fibrillation increases the risk of stroke

Atrial fibrillation: a heart monitor connected to a smartphone