Improving clinical practice: the apixaban case

초록

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common sustained cardiac arrhythmia, occurring in 1-2% of the general population; over 6 million Europeans suffer from this arrhythmia.1 AF may long remain undiagnosed (silent AF), and many patients with AF will never present to hospital; hence, the ‘true’ prevalence of AF is probably closer to 2% of the population.1 In a systematic review of epidemiological studies in countries outside North America and Europe, the reported prevalence of AF varied among countries, with different ranges in community- and hospital-based studies (0.1-4% and 2.8-14%, respectively).2 Atrial fibrillation is present in 3-6% of acute medical admissions, for which the most common comorbidities are coronary artery disease and congestive heart failure; in the community setting, hypertension is the most common causal risk factor.3