Tag Archives: VKA

Introduction Vitamin K antagonists (VKAs) reduce the risk of stroke in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF). For more than five decades, they were the only available treatment. Novel oral anticoagulants (NOACs) have recently been approved for the prevention of non-valvular AF-related stroke. Dose-adjusted VKA therapy and NOACs are highly effective in AF patients. However, dabigatran, rivaroxaban and apixaban are more convenient, while at least equally effective and with a comparable safety profile (regarding bleeding complications) for stroke prevention compared with VKAs.1-3 Recent guidelines prefer treatment with NOACs over VKAs for most

Background The novel oral anticoagulant (NOAC) agents (dabigatran, rivaroxaban, apixaban) have had a disproportionally poor uptake since their respective launches and National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) Technology Appraisal in the UK between 2012 and 2013 for their use in stroke prevention in patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation (NVAF), when compared with our European counterparts; particularly Germany, Holland and France. In the original NICE economic analyses for the NOACs there was a calculated uptake of approximately 20% in the first year,1 the figure currently runs at <8% with many area’s significantly