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Atrial fibrillation, stroke prevention therapy and aging

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Stroke risk in patients with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation increases markedly with age. Although anticoagulation is more effective than antiplatelet therapy in atrial fibrillation, it tends to be underutilized in the elderly. A study by van Walraven et al. examines the influence of age on stroke prevention therapy in atrial fibrillation.

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Author notes

  1. J. D. Spence, Stroke Prevention & Atherosclerosis Research Centre, 1400 Western Road, London, ON N6G 2V2, Canada dspence@robarts.ca

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Stroke Prevention & Atherosclerosis Research Centre, Robarts Research Institute, London, ON, Canada

    J. David Spence

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  1. J. David Spence
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Competing interests

J. David Spence is a consultant for Novartis and has been on the speaker's bureau/honoraria for Pfizer, Novartis, Merck Schering, Astra Zeneca and Boehringer Ingelheim.

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Spence, J. Atrial fibrillation, stroke prevention therapy and aging. Nat Rev Cardiol 6, 448–450 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrcardio.2009.98

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