Patterns of anticoagulation therapy in atrial fibrillation: results from a large real-life single-center registry.

AIM: To investigate the differences in the characteristics and clinical outcomes of recently diagnosed patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) receiving different types of anticoagulants in a real-life setting. METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed the charts of 1000 consecutive patients with non-valvular AF diagnosed at our institution or referred it to from 2013 to 2018. RESULTS: Over the observed period, the frequency of direct oral anticoagulation (DOAC) therapy use significantly increased (P = 0.002). Patients receiving warfarin had more unfavorable thromboembolic and bleeding risk factors than patients receiving DOAC. Predetermined stroke and major bleeding risks were similarly distributed among the dabigatran, rivaroxaban, and apixaban groups. Patients receiving warfarin had shorter time-to-major bleeding (TTB), time to thrombosis (TTT), and overall survival (OS) than patients receiving DOACs. After adjustment for factors unbalanced at baseline, the warfarin group showed significantly shorter OS (hazard ratio 2.27, 95% confidence interval 1.44-3.57, P<0.001], while TTB and TTT did not significantly differ between the groups. Only 37% of patients on warfarin had optimal dosing control, and they did not differ significantly in TTB, TTT, and OS from patients on DOACs. CONCLUSION: Warfarin and DOACs are administered to different target populations, possibly due to socio-economic reasons. Patients receiving warfarin rarely obtain optimal dosing control, and experience significantly shorter survival compared with patients receiving DOACs.

[Biochemical markers in assessment of severity and prognosis of acute pancreatitis]. / Biokemijski parametri u procjeni tezine i prognoze akutnog pankreatitisa.

The authors reveal and discuss the role of novel biochemical parameters in early diagnosis of acute pancreatitis and assessment of the severity of the disease. These biochemical parameters, beside routinely used amilase and lipase, might enable us to early identify those patients who are at risk of developing severe form of pancreatitis or complications. These parameters include trypsinogen activation peptide (TAP), C-reactive protein (CRP, tripsinogen-2, procalcitonin, phospholipase-A2 (PLA2), carboxypeptidase activation peptide (CAPAP) and interleukin-6 and 8 (IL-6, IL-8). Although these markers are still not incorporated in routine clinical practice, IL-6, IL-10, procalcitonin and trypsinogen activation peptide seem to have a good chance to be used as a new biochemical markers in assessment of severity and prognosis of acute pancreatitis.