Safety and efficacy of warfarin in treating atrial fibrillation / Muhamad Nazrin Mazlan

Background: Warfarin is an anticoagulant that inhibits the production of Vitamin K. It is used as in prevention of stroke in atrial fibrillation patients. This study aimed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of warfarin in the second six months of treatment by evaluating Time in Therapeutic Range of patients and evaluating CHADS2 V ASc and HASBLED score and their relationship to stroke and bleeding incidences. Results and Discussions: A total of 167data of patients were collected retrospectively. Out of 139 patients who had TTR outside the intended range (<75%) 26 experienced bleeding and I had stroke in the second six months of treatment. From 28 patients who had TTR >75%, 4 experienced bleeding and none had stroke. Increase HASBLED score showed increase bleeding and increase risk of major bleeding event. The common reason for INR outside range was drug interaction and side effects with 39.5% (n=66) patient. Conclusion: The number of patients with TTR >75% (n=28) was lesser than TTR <75% (n=139). The incidence of bleeding was lower in 26 out of 139 who experienced bleeding with TTR <75%. This shows that warfarin could be safe in prevention of stroke with a management and follow up.