Anticoagulantes orales directos en la fibrilación auricular no valvular: cómo mejorar su uso en España

Framing anticoagulation control according to clinical practice for patients with atrial fibrillation in Spain: a multidisciplinary vision trough AMFA Project

Introduction and objectives

The use of vitamin K antagonists (VKA) in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) in Spain remains high, even though the available data on anticoagulation control (TRT, time in therapeutic range) shows suboptimal results. The objective of the AMFA project, an atlas of the management of anticoagulation in patients with AF, was to describe oral anticoagulation management in Spanish´ patients.

Materials and methods

The AMFA Project is a descriptive, multicenter study. It included information from 60 healthcare areas from each of the 17 Spanish regions. Consensus methodologies were used to analyze qualitative information obtained from the physicians' experience and perception and quantitative data collected through a specialized study questionnaire. In this questionnaire, experts were asked to include data of the last 10 consecutive patients attended with AF on anticoagulation treatment.

Results

Records from 1,580 patients were obtained from 176 experts. Of them, 34.7% were cardiologists, 32.9% general practitioners (GPs), and 32.4% hematologists. The utilization rates of Direct Oral Anticoagulants (DOACs) and VKAs in clinical practice was 55.8% and 43.3%, respectively, which was not correlated with experts' perception. Clinical practice data revealed that 30.3% of the patients included did not have international normalized ratio (INR) or TTR data available, while only 3.8% of the experts reported that INR/TTR information was not available according to their perception. Considering only patients who had INR and TTR available, clinical practice showed that 59.0% of the patients had their coagulation in range, while the remaining 41.0% were uncontrolled. This result matches with the general perception reported by the experts, 62.6% of patients in range. Additionally, up to 22.2% of patients received DOAC treatment at suboptimal doses.

Conclusions

These data highlight the suboptimal control of the INR of patients, as well as the difficulties in DOACs access in Spain. The study uncovers the need to implement actions to improve INR control, facilitate access to DOACs treatment, and standardize AF patients' management. Establishing protocols that facilitate intervention may optimize the management of the patients with AF.

[Current situation of direct oral anticoagulants in primary care in Spain: Positioning of SEMERGEN in 2023]

Oral anticoagulation is the key to reduce the risk of stroke in atrial fibrillation. Although vitaminK antagonists (VKA) have classically been used for this purpose, they have been largely overcome by direct oral anticoagulants (DOAC), as demonstrated by evidence from clinical trials, real-life and population studies. In fact, all clinical practice guidelines recommend their use preferentially over VKA. However, in Spain the prescription of DOAC is subordinated to an inspection visa that includes the clinical conditions defined in the Therapeutic Positioning Report of the Spanish Medicines Agency, and that still imposes important restrictions on their use, limiting the benefits of using DOACs in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF), and also generating inequalities between the different autonomous communities. In fact, the use of DOAC in Spain is much lower than that observed in neighboring countries. This has made that while in other countries the incidence of ischemic stroke has decreased at the population level, along with a reduction in the cost per patient with AF, in Spain this decrease has been modest. For all these reasons, and for assuring the sustainability of the health care system, we ask for the elimination of the visa so that DOAC can be prescribed according to the recommendations made by the guidelines. In addition, we are also committed to reinforce medical education and decisions made by consensus with the patient, with the primary care physician acquiring a key role in the protection of the patient with AF.

Patient characteristics and stroke and bleeding events in nonvalvular atrial fibrillation patients treated with apixaban and vitamin K antagonists: a Spanish real-world study

Aim: To compare the risk of stroke, systemic thromboembolism and bleeding, in patients initiating apixaban or acenocoumarol for the treatment of nonvalvular atrial fibrillation. Methods: An observational, retrospective study was performed using medical records of patients who initiated apixaban or acenocoumarol between 2015 and 2017. Propensity score matching was used to match patients; stroke, systemic thromboembolism, major and minor bleeding events were compared between the matched patients. Results: Patients who were prescribed apixaban had a lower rate of systemic embolism/stroke (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.54; 95% CI: 0.38–0.78; p = 0.001), minor bleeding (HR = 0.64; 95% CI: 0.52–0.79; p < 0.001) and major bleeding (HR = 0.51; 95% CI: 0.37–0.72; p < 0.001). Conclusion: Patients prescribed apixaban for the treatment of nonvalvular atrial fibrillation had lower rates of thromboembolic events and minor/major bleeding than patients on acenocoumarol.