Warfarin Underused in Atrial Fibrillation Patients, Harvard School of Public Health And GlaxoSmithKline Study

The Heart -- Washington, DC - Most patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) aren't getting prescriptions for warfarin, and of those who are on warfarin, most aren't being anticoagulated to the proper therapeutic extent; their international normalized ratios (INRs) are frequently outside the recommended range of 2.0 to 3.0, which puts them at significantly increased risk of intracranial hemorrhage (ICH) or embolic stroke, suggest data gleaned retrospectively from prescription reimbursement claims, hospital records, and similar sources from the years 1999 to 2005 [1]. There was no record of a prescription for an antiplatelet agent for almost half the patients in the analysis.