The incidence of left atrial appendage thrombi on transesophageal echocardiography after pretreatment with apixaban for cardioversion in the real-world practice.

ABSTRACT: The risk of thromboembolisms during the post-cardioversion period is high. For patients with persistent atrial fibrillation (AF), anticoagulation with warfarin (INR 2.0~3.0) is recommended for at least three weeks prior and four weeks after cardioversion. We aimed to evaluate the efficacy of apixaban in preventing thromboembolic events during post-cardioversion. We enrolled 127 consecutive persistent AF patients (83 persistent, 44 longstanding persistent AF), scheduled to undergo cardioversion and were pretreated with apixaban. All patients underwent transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) to rule out thrombi in the left atrium (LA) or LA appendage (LAA) after anticoagulation with apixaban. The median duration of anticoagulation before the TEE was 37 (interquartile range [IQR] 34, 50) days.

SUBMITTER: Hwang J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6285970 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature