JAMA & ARCHIVES
Arch Fam Med
SEARCH
GO TO ADVANCED SEARCH
HOME  PAST ISSUES  TOPIC COLLECTIONS  CME  PHYSICIAN JOBS  CONTACT US  HELP
Institution: STANFORD Univ Med Center  | My Account | E-mail Alerts | Access Rights | Sign In
  Vol. 6 No. 2, March 1997 TABLE OF CONTENTS
  Archives
  •  Online Features
  EDITORIAL
 This Article
 •References
 •Full text PDF
 •Send to a friend
 • Save in My Folder
 •Save to citation manager
 •Permissions
 Citing Articles
 •Citation map
 •Contact me when this article is cited
 Related Content
 •Similar articles in this journal

Anticoagulant Therapy in Patients Aged 80 Years or More With Atrial Fibrillation

More Caution Is Needed

Richard J. Ackermann, MD

Arch Fam Med. 1997;6(2):105-110.

Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

IN THE December 1995 issue of the ARCHIVES, Lackner and Battis1 assessed the appropriate use of anticoagulant therapy with warfarin sodium (Coumadin, DuPont Pharma, Wilmington, Del) in a small study of 69 nursing home residents (mean age, 88 years) with chronic nonvalvular atrial fibrillation (NVAF). They found that only 12 (17%) of these patients were taking warfarin, and made a strong argument that this was far too few. In an accompanying Editorial in that issue, Brechtelsbauer2 generally agreed that elderly patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) should receive oral anticoagulant therapy to reduce the risk of stroke unless a contraindication exists. Several other authorities, including the American College of Chest Physicians' Fourth Consensus Conference on Antithrombotic Therapy have recently supported this position,3-11 although there have been voices of caution.12-16 I suggest that oral anticoagulant therapy to prevent stroke in very old (age >80 years) patients with NVAF . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]


Author Affiliations

Department of Family and Community Medicine Mercer University School of Medicine Macon, Ga






HOME | CURRENT ISSUE | PAST ISSUES | TOPIC COLLECTIONS | CME | PHYSICIAN JOBS | HELP
CONDITIONS OF USE | PRIVACY POLICY | CONTACT US | SITE MAP
 
© 1997 American Medical Association. All Rights Reserved.