Month: September 2018

Atrial Fibrillation: anticoagulate or not?

Interesting analysis from Annals of Internal Medicine.  The decision to start anticoagulation in atrial fibrillation, using CHADSVASC score is not so clear cut.  See tables below.

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Reference:

Shah, S., Eckman, M., Aspberg, S., Go, A. and Singer, D. (2018). Effect of Variation in Published Stroke Rates on the Net Clinical Benefit of Anticoagulation for Atrial Fibrillation. Annals of Internal Medicine.

Vertebral Artery Stenosis Studies

5 Major Studies on Treatment of VA Stenosis:

  1. CAVATAS (1997) = Carotid and Vertebral Artery Transluminal Angioplasty Study
  2. SAMMPRIS (2011) = Stenting and Aggressive Medical Management for the Prevention of Recurrent Stroke in Intracranial Stenosis
  3. VISSIT (2012) = Vitesse Intracranial Stent Study for Ischemic Therapy
  4. VAST (2013) = Vertebral Artery Stenting Trial
  5. VIST (2015) = Vertebral Artery Ischaemia Stenting Trial

*year = end of recruitment.

 

Key features of the trials comparing stenting with medical treatment which included vertebral stenosisCapture

 

Treatment:

  1. DAPT x 90d
  2. Statin
  3. BP reduction <140mm Hg
  4. Angio +/- stenting

 

Note:

  1. low perioperative complications with extracranial stenting
  2. higher risk of stroke with intracranial VA stenosis
  3. stenting = medical management for extracranial stenosis
  4. medical management better for intracranial stenosis

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Powerpoint File for figure above

Reference:

Drazyk, A. and Markus, H. (2017). Recent advances in the management of symptomatic vertebral artery stenosis. Current Opinion in Neurology, p.1.