The safety and efficacy of nonvitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants in morbidly obese patients with atrial fibrillation: a meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND AND AIM: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most frequently observed cardiac arrhythmia in clinical settings. Obesity can influence the efficacy of the treatment administered, which requires a larger dose and more time to accomplish therapeutic targets due to altered pathophysiology. Our study aimed to assess the overall efficacy and safety of nonvitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants (NOACs) versus warfarin in AF patients with morbid obesity (BMI > 40 kg/m2 and/or weight > 120 kg) to prevent complications. METHODS: We conducted a literature search on PubMed, Web of Science, the Cochrane Library, and Scopus till October 2022 for articles addressing the efficacy and safety of NOACs versus warfarin for the treatment of AF in morbidly obese patients. We performed the meta-analysis with RevMan software version 5.4 and Open Meta Analyst. The main outcomes assessed were stroke, major bleeding, and minor bleeding after anticoagulation, as did the history of comorbidities and risk factors in morbidly obese patients. Quality assessment was performed using Cochrane's ROB-2 tool and the Newcastle-Ottawa scale. RESULTS: Regarding major bleeding events, pooled data showed that patients taking NOACs had a significantly lower risk than patients taking warfarin (OR = 0.54, 95% CI: [0.41-0.70]; p < 0.00001). However, for minor bleeding, there was a nonsignificant effect of NOACs on reducing the risk of bleeding (OR = 0.72, 95% CI = 0.47-1.09; p = 0.12), which became highly significant in favor of NOACs after sensitivity analysis (OR = 0.55, 95% CI = 0.49-0.61]; p < 0.00001). There was a significant difference in the incidence of stroke between the NOAC group and the warfarin group (OR = 0.69, 95% CI = 0.60-0.80]; p < 0.00001). According to the results of the single-arm study analysis, the overall effect of all the outcomes was associated with a high risk of disease development in patients receiving NOACs. CONCLUSION: Our meta-analysis showed a favorable effect of NOACs vs warfarin in morbidly obese patients. Some outcomes were not significantly different, which calls for future research to better assess their safety and efficacy in this particular weight group. TRIAL REGISTRATION: The study was registered with PROSPERO under registration number CRD42022362493 on October 2022.

Clinical and Radiographic Predictors of Successful Coronary Angiography Through Right Radial Artery Access.

Background: One of the limitations of the right radial access approach is complex vessel anatomy, such as subclavian tortuosity. Several clinical predictors have been proposed for tortuosities, such as older age, female sex and hypertension. In this study, we hypothesised that chest radiography would add predictive value to the traditional predictors. Methods: This prospective blinded study included patients who underwent transradial access coronary angiography. They were classified into four groups according to difficulty: Group I, Group II, Group III and Group IV. Different groups were compared according to clinical and radiographic characteristics. Results: The study included 108 patients (54, 27, 17 and 10 patients in Groups I, II, III and IV, respectively). The rate of crossover to transfemoral access was 9.26%. Age, hypertension and female sex were associated with a greater difficulty and failure rates. Regarding radiographic parameters, a higher failure rate was associated with a higher diameter of the aortic knuckle (Group IV, 4.09 ± 1.32 cm versus Groups I, II and III combined, 3.26 ± 0.98 cm; p=0.015) and the width of the mediastinum (Group IV, 8.96 ± 2.88 cm versus Groups I, II and III combined, 7.28 ± 1.78 cm; p=0.009). The cut-off value for prominent aortic knuckle was 3.55 cm (sensitivity 70% and specificity 67.35%) and the width of mediastinum was 6.59 cm (sensitivity 90% and specificity 42.86%). Conclusion: Radiographic prominent aortic knuckle and wide mediastinum are valuable clinical parameters and useful predictors for transradial access failure caused by tortuosity of the right subclavian/brachiocephalic arteries or aorta.

Direct Oral Anticoagulants vs. Warfarin in Hemodialysis Patients With Atrial Fibrillation: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Background: The use of Direct Oral Anticoagulants (DOACs) in patients who have both atrial fibrillation (AF) and end-stage renal disease (ESRD) requiring hemodialysis remains controversial, with warfarin remaining the mainstay of the treatment. As hemodialysis patients were excluded from most clinical DOACs trials, the evidence of their efficacy and safety is lacking in this cohort of patients. Aim: To review the current evidence investigating safety profile and the efficacy of DOACs in comparison with warfarin in patients with AF and end-stage renal disease (ESRD) requiring hemodialysis. Methods and Results: We included five studies with a total of 34,516 patients in our meta-analysis. The outcomes were major bleeding, ischemic stroke, systemic embolization, hemorrhagic stroke, gastrointestinal bleeding, minor bleeding, and death. Of these patients, 31,472 (92.14%) received warfarin and 3,044 patients received DOACs (8.91%). No significant differences in the incidence of hemorrhagic stroke, major bleeding, hemodialysis access site bleeding, ischemic stroke, and GI bleeding were found between DOACs and warfarin. However, there were higher rates of systemic embolization, minor bleeding, and death events in patients who received DOACs than in the warfarin group (3.39% vs. 1.97%, P-value = 0.02), (6.78% vs. 2.2%, P-value 0.02), and (11.38% vs. 5.12%, P-value < 0.006) respectively. Conclusion: In patients on dialysis who require anticoagulation for AF, warfarin could be associated with a significant reduction in minor bleeding, systemic embolization, and death compared to DOACs. These findings need to be validated by further prospective studies to address the best strategy to deal with the increased thrombotic and bleeding risks in such patients.