Epidemiology of thromboembolic and hemorrhagic events in patients with atrial fibrillation under anti-vitamin K.

BACKGROUND: Atrial fibrillation is the most common heart rhythm disorder in the general population. It is associated with increased cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Given this risk, anticoagulant therapy is vital. AIM: To estimate the incidence of thromboembolic and hemorrhagic events in patients with Atrial fibrillation and treated by oral anticoagulant in a cardiology department. METHODS: We carried out an observational longitudinal study over a period of three years (January 2013 - December 2015) in the external consultation of cardiology of Farhat Hached hospital of Sousse. Pre-established individual records were used as a source and tool for data collection. RESULTS: Overall, 200 patients were eligible. Forty-nine percent had valvular atrial fibrillation. After an average follow-up of 2.6 years, 15 thromboembolic events were noted affecting 13 patients (6.5%), with an incidence of 2.8%. We found a significant association between TTR <50% and the occurrence of stroke and transient ischemic events. Half of the patients had minor bleeding and 9.5% had major bleeding, with an incidence of 3.6%. No significant correlation between these accidents and the TTR was found. In addition, 9.5% of patients were hospitalized for international normalized ratio equilibration. They were mainly patients with valvular atrial fibrillation (72%) (p = 0.002). CONCLUSION: Anticoagulant therapy with anti-vitamin-K remains the most adequate treatment. Thus, a well-conducted treatment ensures a reduction in thromboembolic risk and minimizes the occurrence of hemorrhages inherent to this therapy. Therefore, an assessment of the quality of anticoagulation is essential.