Anticoagulants are allies against atrial fibrillation. Report
A CNR study evaluated the effects of anticoagulant-based therapies on different types of atrial fibrillation, an arrhythmia that causes over a quarter of the approximately 200,000 strokes that occur each year in Italy. All the details
The "Fai Project: Atrial Fibrillation in Italy", coordinated by Antonio Di Carlo of the Institute of Neuroscience of the National Research Council (Cnr-In), conducted a new research published in Aging Clinical and Experimental Research (published by Springer Nature ), which made it possible to evaluate anticoagulant-based therapies in the different subtypes of this arrhythmia: persistent, permanent and paroxysmal atrial fibrillation, characterized by episodes that can last up to seven days.
The project, funded by the Center for Disease Control of the Ministry of Health and coordinated by the Tuscany Region, counts as heads of the four Leonardo operational units.
WHAT IS ATRIAL FIBRILLATION
Atrial fibrillation, the experts explain, is characterized by an alteration of the heart rhythm, which is very rapid and irregular, with the formation of clots capable of reaching the brain which cause so-called "cardioembolic" strokes.
THE RISKS
This arrhythmia, increasing its risk by 5 times, causes over a quarter of the approximately 200,000 strokes that occur each year in Italy, where they constitute the second cause of death and the first of disability in elderly-adult subjects.
WHICH THERAPIES
Currently, the study reports, effective anticoagulant-based therapies are available, which reduce the risk of stroke by about 2/3.
The research of the “FAI Project: Atrial Fibrillation in Italy” has studied anticoagulant-based therapies in the different subtypes of this arrhythmia: persistent, permanent and paroxysmal atrial fibrillation.
I STUDY
"The study – explained Di Carlo – examined a representative sample of the elderly Italian population made up of 6,000 over 65, assisted by general medicine in Lombardy, Tuscany and Calabria, who underwent a screening procedure and subsequent clinical confirmation for presence of arrhythmia ".
"The results – continues Di Carlo – indicate that, overall, 69% of patients with atrial fibrillation took anticoagulant therapy, in significantly different percentages in the various subtypes: 91% of patients with the permanent form, 85% with the persistent and only 43% with paroxysmal. The latter were often prescribed antiplatelet drugs, much less effective in preventing stroke, and in 17% of cases no antithrombotic treatment ".
THE NUMBERS OF ATRIAL FIBRILLATION IN ITALY
The estimates of the Project relating to the frequency of atrial fibrillation in the population over 65 in Italy and in the 28 countries of the European Union, with projections up to 2060 that are part of the guidelines of the European Society of Cardiology, indicate approximately 1,100,000 patients with atrial fibrillation in Italy, of which over 40%, about 450,000, are affected by the paroxysmal form.
“More than half of these patients, therefore, would not receive adequate anticoagulation therapy due to a substantial underestimation of risk, regardless of the clinical risk assessment and the duration of the disease,” Di Carlo said.
"It is therefore important to have greater adherence to the available evidence and to the recommendations of the guidelines to reduce the social and health costs associated with this high-impact pathology for families and society", added Domenico Inzitari, professor of the Department of neuroscience, psychology, drug area and child health (Neurofarba) of the University of Florence, promoter and scientific manager of the Fai project.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/sanita/gli-anticoagulanti-sono-alleati-contro-la-fibrillazione-atriale-report/ on Wed, 06 Jul 2022 09:08:59 +0000.