Safety and efficacy of warfarin versus Dabigatran in atrial fibrillation / Mastura Mohd Hajiri

Background: Warfarin is the most anticoagulant used for more than 50 years old as stroke prophylaxis in atrial fibrillation. New oral anticoagulant which is Dabigatran was developed and showed to be safer over W arfarin due to lower tendency of bleeding. This study aimed to compare the pattern of anticoagulant used and to evaluate the safety and efficacy profile of Warfarin. Besides that, comparison of the safety and efficacy of W arfarin versus Dabigatran as stroke prophylaxis in atrial fibrillation was done by evaluating both bleeding and stroke incidence in both group. Results and Discussions: A total of 71 patient were recruited for this study and current! y 21, 21 and 29 patients use W arfarin, Dabigatran 110 mg and Dabigatran 150 mg respectively. Out of 50 Dabigatran users, 36 of them are warfarin-experienced. Both Dabigatran 110 mg and 150 mg showed to have lower bleeding incidence and no stroke incidence as compared to Warfarin. Conclusion: Pattern of anticoagulant used for stroke prophylaxis in atrial fibrillation was slowly changing from Warfarin to Dabigatran. Evaluation of safety and efficacy profile ofWarfarin showed that Warfarin require extensive management and monitoring in order to achieve the therapeutic goals with less side effect. Comparison between both anticoagulant showed that Dabigatran was safer and effective as compared to Warfarin.