Table 3.
Efficacy of warfarin in preventing ischemic strokes in ESRD patients with atrial fibrillation
| Study | Country | Design | N | Adjusted HR for Ischemic Stroke (95% CI) | Comments |
| Shen et al., 2015 (2) | United States | Retrospective | 12284 (1838 warfarin users) | 0.73 (0.44 to 1.20) | 1) Incident atrial fibrillation. |
| 2) INR achieved was not reported. | |||||
| 3) 69.7% of users were off drug 1 yr after initiation. | |||||
| Shah et al., 2014 (3) | Canada | Retrospective | 1626 (756 warfarin users) | 1.14 (0.78 to 1.67) | 1) Unclear if nonvalvular AF was excluded. |
| 2) Included patients >65 yr. | |||||
| Genovesi et al., 2014 (4) | Italy | Prospective | 290 (134 on warfarin) | 0.12 (0.00 to 3.59) | 1) INR variability included. |
| 2) Small number of patients. | |||||
| Olesen et al., 2012 (5) | Denmark | Retrospective | 901 at baseline, 1378 during the study period (178 on warfarin) | 0.44 (0.26 to 0.74) | 1) Studied incident atrial fibrillation. |
| 2) No INR data. | |||||
| Winkelmayer et al., 2011 (6) | United States | Retrospective | 2313 (warfarin in 249) | 0.92 (0.61 to 1.37) | 1) Studied incident atrial fibrillation in patients 66 yrs and older. |
| 2) Warfarin users were less frail. | |||||
| Chan et al., 2009 (7) | United States | Retrospective | 1671 (508 on warfarin) | 1.93 (1.29 to 2.90) | 1) Studied incident hemodialysis patients with preexisting atrial fibrillation. Used propensity score matching and time-varying analysis. |
HR, hazard ratio; 95% CI, 95 % confidence interval; INR, international normalized ratio; AF, atrial fibrillation.