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Introduction: The impact of the increased anticoagulants uptake on incidence rate of ischemic stroke is largely unknown. We assessed time trends in rates of ischemic stroke in patients with incident atrial fibrillation (AF) diagnosed between 2011 and 2013., Materials and Methods: Population-based retrospective registry study of all 11,500 adults diagnosed with incident non-valvular atrial fibrillation in 2011-2013 in primary and secondary care and receiving oral anticoagulants (n=4847), aspirin (n=2850) or no treatment (n=3766) in Skåne County, Sweden. The primary outcome was the rate of ischemic stroke within 365days after AF diagnosis., Results and Conclusion: Cumulative incidence of ischemic stroke decreased from 2.87% (95% confidence interval (CI) 2.37-3.45%) to 1.93% (95% CI 1.54-2.41%) while the uptake of oral anticoagulants increased from 36.6% to 48.4% between 2011 and 2013 (regression coefficient -0.08; 95% CI, -0.09 to -0.07, p<0.001). The increased uptake of oral anticoagulants in the community is associated with decreased incidence of ischemic stroke in AF patients., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Introduction: Oral anticoagulants in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) with moderate-to-high stroke risk are strongly recommended by the current guidelines., Materials and Methods: Population-based register study of all 13,837 patients with incident non-valvular AF diagnosed during 2011-2014 in primary and secondary care (including all in- and outpatient visits) in Skåne County, Sweden. The outcome was the prescription of direct-acting oral anticoagulants (DOAC), warfarin or acetylsalicylic acid (ASA)., Results and Conclusion: Guideline adherence increased from 47.6% in 2011 to 66.1% in 2014, mostly due to decrease in undertreatment. In patients with CHA2DS2-VASc score ≥ 2, ASA uptake decreased from 29.9% to 14.7% and DOAC uptake increased from 2.1% to 25.1%. The use of ASA was more common among elderly and with increasing stroke- and bleeding risk. Overall, 47.4% of patients with CHA2DS2-VASc score ≥ 2 did not receive oral anticoagulants. Undertreatment was particularly common in women < 65 years (55.8%) and in patients > 84 years (65.3% in women and 62% in men). Overtreatment of patients at low stroke risk was 35.9% in men and 36.4% in women. Provider speciality affected the choice of treatment only to a minor degree. Despite increasing guideline adherence, there is a suboptimal use of antithrombotic therapy in a large proportion of AF patients diagnosed in different clinical settings. Efforts to further improve guideline adherence should particularly be targeted on women < 65 years, elderly > 84 years and patients at low stroke risk., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Introduction: Dronedarone is a strong P-glycoprotein inhibitor with a potential to increase bioavailability of dabigatran. We sought to measure and report plasma concentrations of dabigatran in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) on concomitant dronedarone treatment., Materials and Methods: A cohort of 33 patients (mean age 64 years, 16 men) concomitantly treated with dabigatran at a dose of 110 mg twice a day (bid) and dronedarone at a dose of 400mg bid at the discretion of the patient's cardiologist were followed prospectively., Results: Median trough plasma concentration of dabigatran at one week and one month after the concomitant treatment start was 102.0 (range 8-251) ng/ml and 84 (range 27-302) ng/ml respectively. Median treatment length was 13 (range 1-21) months. There was one major bleeding event (2,8% per patient-year) and no thrombotic events during a total of 35.5 patient-years., Conclusions: Median trough plasma concentration of dabigatran in our study was observed to be similar to median trough plasma concentration of dabigatran at a dose of 150 mg bid without concomitant dronedarone in earlier studies with low reported rate of bleeding and thrombosis. Since concomitant treatment offers potential benefits to patients with AF, larger future trials that might refute the current contraindication are warranted., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Background: Vernakalant is a novel atrial-selective antiarrhythmic drug able to convert recent-onset atrial fibrillation (AF) with reportedly low proarrhythmic risk. Successful cardioversion predictors are largely unknown. We sought to evaluate clinical and electrocardiographic predictors of cardioversion of recent-onset AF with vernakalant., Methods: Consecutive patients with AF ≤48 hours admitted for cardioversion with vernakalant (n = 113, median age 62 years, 69 male) were included. Sinus rhythm (SR) within 90 minutes after infusion start was considered to be successful cardioversion. Predictive values of demographics, concomitant therapy, comorbidities, and electrocardiographic parameters were assessed. Atrial fibrillatory rate (AFR), exponential decay, and mean fibrillatory wave amplitude were measured from surface ECG using QRST cancellation and time-frequency analysis., Results: Cardioversion was achieved in 66% of patients. Conversion rate was higher in women than in men (80% vs 58%, P = 0.02) while none of other clinical characteristics, including index AF episode duration, could predict SR restoration. Female gender was predictive of vernakalant's effect in logistic regression analysis (OR = 2.82 95%CI 1.18-6.76, P = 0.020). There was no difference in AFR (350 ± 60 vs 348 ± 62 fibrillations per minute [fpm], P = 0.893), mean fibrillatory wave amplitude (86 ± 33 vs 88 ± 67 μV, P = 0.852), or exponential decay (1.30 ± 0.42 vs 1.35 ± 0.42, P = 0.376) between responders and nonresponders., Conclusions: Female gender is associated with a higher rate of SR restoration using intravenous (i.v.) vernakalant for recent-onset AF. ECG-derived indices of AF organization, which previous studies associated with effect of rhythm control interventions, did not predict vernakalant's effect., (© 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)

The majority of patients who present to the Emergency Department with vertigo suffer from benign conditions. However, a few percent of these patients have life-threatening conditions, such as a cerebellar stroke. The HINTS clinical decision rule (Head-Impulse test, Nystagmus, Test-of-Skew) allows the physician to identify patients with an acute vestibular syndrome of central origin. HINTS is more sensitive than early magnetic resonance imaging. There is no role for computed tomography in the evaluation of patients with isolated acute vestibular syndrome in the Emergency Department. For patients with benign paroxysmal positional vertigo, simple reposition maneuvers are effective for symptom relief.