0000000000848493
AUTHOR
Jeff S. Healey
Antiplatelet therapy in patients with atrial fibrillation: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized trials.
Abstract Aims The aim of this study was to systematically assess the effects of antiplatelets on clinical outcomes in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF), treated and not-treated with oral anticoagulation. Methods and results We searched MEDLINE, Embase, and CENTRAL from inception until September 2020. From 5446 citations, we selected randomized trials allocating patients with AF to antiplatelet therapy vs. control. We applied random-effects models for meta-analysis and assessed potential effect modification with background anticoagulation use. Eighteen trials including 21 518 participants met our prespecified eligibility criteria. In 10 studies without background anticoagulation, anti…
Estimated stroke risk, yield, and number needed to screen for atrial fibrillation detected through single time screening: a multicountry patient-level meta-analysis of 141,220 screened individuals.
Background The precise age distribution and calculated stroke risk of screen-detected atrial fibrillation (AF) is not known. Therefore, it is not possible to determine the number needed to screen (NNS) to identify one treatable new AF case (NNS-Rx) (i.e., Class-1 oral anticoagulation [OAC] treatment recommendation) in each age stratum. If the NNS-Rx is known for each age stratum, precise cost-effectiveness and sensitivity simulations can be performed based on the age distribution of the population/region to be screened. Such calculations are required by national authorities and organisations responsible for health system budgets to determine the best age cutoffs for screening programs and d…