WEDNESDAY, Feb. 1 (HealthDay News) -- An investigational mix with ~s called apixaban (Eliquis) appears to be better than aspirin at preventing hotspur clots in certain patients who consider already suffered a stroke or in such a manner-called "mini-stroke" due to one abnormal heart rhythm, according to the results of a repaired study.

For patients with the dangerous irregular heart rhythm known as atrial fibrillation who have power to't tolerate the standard drug management, daily apixaban seems to be to a greater degree effective at warding off a stroke or blood clot than aspirin, the study plant.

The study was funded by Bristol-Myers Squibb and Pfizer, what one. are developing apixaban. The findings were slated against presentation Wednesday at the American Stroke Association's annals conference in New Orleans.

For the study, a team of researchers from Canada and Germany, led by Dr. Hans-Christoph Diener of the University Hospital Essen, tracked intimately 5,600 atrial fibrillation patients (medium age 70 years) for about individual year.

All of the patients were deemed out of place for standard treatment with the anticoagulant known since warfarin (Coumadin), the researchers pointed at a loss in a news release from the American Stroke Association.

Study participants were randomly divided into two groups: one group received two daily doses of 5 milligrams of apixaban (ingredient of a new class of anti-clotting drugs known in the manner that Factor Xa inhibitors); the other cluster received between 81 and 324 milligrams of aspirin diurnal (81 milligrams is a typical "frugal-dose" aspirin).

The result: among those anger apixaban who had a prior account of stroke or mini-stroke (imperfect ischemic attack), only 2.4 percent went adhering to experience a subsequent stroke or systemic embolism (blood clot) during treatment. By exhibit the differences of, that figure rose to more than 9 percent mixed similar patients receiving daily aspirin.

Patients forward apixaban had no greater risk of greater bleeding than those on aspirin, the team added.

The researchers concluded that apixaban was well-tolerated and afforded a greater extent of stroke risk reduction than aspirin amidst those for whom warfarin is not a viable preference.

Commenting on the findings, Dr. Anthony Comerota, mentor of the Jobst Vascular Institute, Toledo Hospital in Toledo, Ohio, eminent that the study results were not marvellous, but added that it is of importance to understand exactly which patients strength benefit from apixaban.

"Because aspirin does not be the subject of a major beneficial effect on the blade-clotting system, this is a be the effect that I would expect among those by atrial fibrillation. But this is the rank that needs to be made distinct: strokes resulting from atrial fibrillation are various from those that result from ailment going to the main arteries in the brain," explained Comerota, who was not akin to the study.

"Atrial fibrillation is each abnormal rhythm in the heart, in that the atria -- the top chambers of the centre -- do not contract. They just arrange of fibrillate [quiver]. And, therefore, the hotspur does not empty completely from the atrium. And on the supposition that it doesn't empty it sits in that place, and if it sits there stagnant, there's tendency for the royal lineage to clot," he continued.

"So the sort of this study did," Comerota noted, "was represent as resembling the benefits of aspirin versus apixaban to shorten the likelihood of this kind of clotting. Clotting in the atrium. Because admitting that fewer clots form in the disposition there's less of a verisimilitude any will break off and be esteemed to the brain and cause a sudden effort."

Comerota pointed out that "the do good to of using this new anticoagulant to lessen this risk is that it comes from a just discovered class of drugs that has a great quantity less interaction than warfarin with other kinds of medications."

Apixaban does not demand the same kind of monitoring taken in the character of warfarin, which demands frequent blood tests and also interacts with many common types of meat. "Warfarin is a good drug, ~-end it needs to be carefully monitored and, unfortunately, has sundry problematic interactions. And for those who have power to't take it, this study suggests apixaban is a profit alternative," Comerota concluded.

Apixaban is currently under review for approval by the U.S. Food and physic Administration.

The data and conclusions of examination presented at medical meetings should exist viewed as preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

More information

For greater amount of on atrial fibrillation, visit the U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.

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