1.
Renal function and outcomes in anticoagulated patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation: the AMADEUS trial.
Apostolakis, S, Guo, Y, Lane, DA, Buller, H, Lip, GY
European heart journal. 2013;(46):3572-9
Abstract
AIMS: Limited data are available on the impact of renal function on the outcome of patients with atrial fibrillation (AF). METHODS AND RESULTS AMADEUS was a multicentre, randomized, open-label non-inferiority study that compared fixed-dose idraparinux with conventional anticoagulation by dose-adjusted vitamin K antagonists. We performed a post hoc analysis to assess the impact of renal function on the outcomes of anticoagulated AF patients. The primary efficacy outcome was the composite of stroke/systemic embolism (SE). The principal safety outcome of this analysis was major bleeding. We calculated c-indexes, reflecting the ability for discriminating diseased vs. non-diseased patients, and the net reclassification improvement (NRI, an index of inferior/superior performance of risk estimation scores). Of 4576 patients, 45 strokes and 103 major bleeding events occurred following an average follow-up of 325 ± 164 days. Patients with CrCl >90 mL/min had an annual stroke/SE rate of 0.6% compared with 0.8% for those with CrCl 60-90 mL/min and 2.2% for those with CrCl <60 mL/min (P < 0.001 for linear association). After adjusting for stroke risk factors, patients with CrCl <60 mL/min had more than two-fold higher risk of stroke/SE and almost 60% higher risk of major bleeding compared with those with CrCl ≥60. In patients with the CHA2DS2VASc score 1-2, CrCl <60 mL/min was associated with eight-fold higher stroke risk. When added to the CHA2DS2VASc or CHADS2 scores, CrCl <60 mL/min did not improve the c-indexes for CHADS2 (P = 0.054) or CHA2DS2VASc (P = 0.63) but resulted in significant NRI (0.26, P = 0.02) in this anticoagulated trial cohort. CONCLUSION Renal impairment (CrCl <60 mL/min) doubles the risk of stroke and increased the risk of major bleeding by almost 60% in anticoagulated patients with AF. Renal impairment was additive to stroke risk prediction scores based on a significant NRI, but no significant improvement in discrimination ability (based on c-indexes) for CHA2DS2VASc or CHADS2 was observed.
2.
Performance of the HEMORR(2)HAGES, ATRIA, and HAS-BLED bleeding risk-prediction scores in patients with atrial fibrillation undergoing anticoagulation: the AMADEUS (evaluating the use of SR34006 compared to warfarin or acenocoumarol in patients with atrial fibrillation) study.
Apostolakis, S, Lane, DA, Guo, Y, Buller, H, Lip, GY
Journal of the American College of Cardiology. 2012;(9):861-7
Abstract
OBJECTIVES The objective of this study was to compare the predictive performance of bleeding risk-estimation tools in a cohort of patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) undergoing anticoagulation. BACKGROUND Three bleeding risk-prediction schemes have been derived for and validated in patients with AF: HEMORR(2)HAGES (Hepatic or Renal Disease, Ethanol Abuse, Malignancy, Older Age, Reduced Platelet Count or Function, Re-Bleeding, Hypertension, Anemia, Genetic Factors, Excessive Fall Risk and Stroke), ATRIA (Anticoagulation and Risk Factors in Atrial Fibrillation), and HAS-BLED (Hypertension, Abnormal Renal/Liver Function, Stroke, Bleeding History or Predisposition, Labile International Normalized Ratio, Elderly, Drugs/Alcohol). Τhe relative predictive values of these bleeding scores have not previously been compared. METHODS We analyzed the dataset from the AMADEUS (Evaluating the Use of SR34006 Compared to Warfarin or Acenocoumarol in Patients With Atrial Fibrillation) trial, a multicenter, randomized, open-label noninferiority study that compared fixed-dose idraparinux with adjustable-dose oral vitamin K antagonist therapy in patients with AF. The principal safety outcome was any clinically relevant bleeding event, which was a composite of major bleeding plus clinically relevant nonmajor bleeding. RESULTS The HAS-BLED score performed best in predicting any clinically relevant bleeding, reflected both in net reclassification improvement (10.3% and 13% improvement compared with HEMORR(2)HAGES and ATRIA, respectively) and receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) analyses (c-indexes: 0.60 vs. 0.55 and 0.50 for HAS-BLED vs. HEMORR(2)AGES and ATRIA, respectively). Using decision-curve analysis, the HAS-BLED score demonstrated superior performance compared with ATRIA and HEMORR(2)HAGES at any threshold probability for clinically relevant bleeding. HAS-BLED was the only score that demonstrated a significant predictive performance for intracranial hemorrhage (c-index: 0.75; p = 0.03). An ATRIA score >3 was not significantly associated with the risk for any clinically relevant bleeding on Cox regression or on ROC analysis (c-index: 0.50; p = 0.87). CONCLUSIONS All 3 tested bleeding risk-prediction scores demonstrated only modest performance in predicting any clinically relevant bleeding, although the HAS-BLED score performed better than the HEMORR(2)HAGES and ATRIA scores, as reflected by ROC analysis, reclassification analysis, and decision-curve analysis. Only HAS-BLED demonstrated a significant predictive performance for intracranial hemorrhage. Given its simplicity, the HAS-BLED score may be an attractive method for the estimation of oral anticoagulant-related bleeding risk for use in clinical practice, supporting recommendations in international guidelines.
3.
Bleeding risk assessment and management in atrial fibrillation patients. Key messages for clinical practice from the European Heart Rhythm Association position statement.
Guo, Y, Lip, GY, Apostolakis, S
Polskie Archiwum Medycyny Wewnetrznej. 2012;(5):235-42
Abstract
The prevention of thromboembolism is the main therapeutic goal in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF). Vitamin K antagonists have been proved highly effective in preventing thromboembolic events in patients with AF and despite recent advances in oral anticoagulation they remain the most widely used agents. Anticoagulation increases the incidence of bleeding; however, in the field of stroke prevention in AF the clinical benefit of vitamin K antagonists clearly outweighs potential risks. The annual incidence of major bleeding among individuals with AF on oral anticoagulation varies widely, ranging from 1.3% to 7.2%. Several factors affect bleeding risk including the intensity of anticoagulation, the efficacy of monitoring modalities, and patient characteristics. This multifactorial etiology makes prediction of bleeding risk complex, necessitating the derivation and validation of clinical prediction tools for the estimation of total bleeding risk in clinical practice. The present review summarizes data on definition, risk prediction, prevention, and management of oral anticoagulation‑associated bleeding as reflected by the recent European Heart Rhythm Association consensus statement.