Tag Archives: venous thromboembolism (VTE)

Introduction Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is a common source of morbidity and mortality: for example, the annual incidence of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE) in the UK have been estimated as 1/10,000 and 3–4/10,000 individuals, respectively, although the latter figure is considered to be an underestimate.1,2 The majority of cases of VTE occur during or following hospitalisation, and VTE has been described as the primary source of avoidable mortality in hospital;3 accordingly, more than 95% of such patients received a VTE risk assessment in 2016.4 Vitamin K antagonists (VKA), the standard of care for managing VTE for

Introduction Three important lines of evidence have informed the debate on optimal anticoagulation for people at risk of stroke: Meta-analyses have generally supported the findings from the ENGAGE-AF TIMI-481 and Hokusai-VTE2 trials, in terms of comparable efficacy and reduced bleeding risk with non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants (NOACs) versus warfarin in patients at risk of stroke, or with acute venous thromboembolism (VTE), respectively.3-8 The randomised Birmingham Atrial Fibrillation Treatment of the Aged Study (BAFTA) trial confirmed the superiority of anticoagulation versus aspirin in elderly patients with atrial fibrillati