Results for a pilot registry on the management and treatment of atrial fibrillation (AF) in Europe show that compliance with treatment guidelines for patients with the lowest and higher stroke risk scores remains suboptimal, says the European Society of Cardiology (ESC).
Statistics show that oral anticoagulant use has increased, but new oral anticoagulant (NOAC) use is still low.
Professor Gregory Lip, corresponding author and chairman of the Euro Observational Research Programme-Atrial Fibrillation (EORP-AF) programme said: “New guidelines on the management of AF were recently published by the ESC and we wanted to find out how clinicians were adhering to them. Our registry was a survey of their implementation as well as the uptake of catheter ablation, new antithrombotic drugs and new anti arrhythmic agents, amongst other data.
“Drug prescription patterns showed interesting changes over the last decade. Adherence to recommendations for OAC use has improved somewhat (in 80% overall), although they are significantly less used in females. Non-Vitamin K Oral Anticoagulants (NOACs) on the contrary, were used only in 8.4%, but reflected the fact that NOACs were not widely available in all countries.”
