GWTGStroke Delivers Anticoagulation Improvements in AF

GWTGStroke Delivers Anticoagulation Improvements in AF
Thursday, October 20, 2011
By: Eleanor McDermid

Eleanor McDermid

The Get With The Guidelines (GWTG)-Stroke initiative has delivered a large increase in the use of anticoagulation in eligible patients with atrial fibrillation (AF), a study shows.

Overall use of anticoagulation in eligible patients climbed to around 95 percent by the end of the study period, although the researchers did find persistent underuse for the oldest patients and for African-American and Hispanic patients.

"In the future, efforts should focus on closing these gaps," William Lewis (Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio) and colleagues write in the American Heart Journal.

The study period ran from 2003 to 2010 and involved 144,430 AF patients, who comprised about 20 percent of all ischemic stroke patients treated in 1354 hospitals participating in GWTG-Stroke.