FORMACIÓN CONTINUADA — ACTUALIZACIÓN EN MEDICINA DE FAMILIA Nuevas estrategias terapéuticas para la prevención del ictus en pacientes con brilación auricular: perspectiva desde atención primaria

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common sustained arrhythmia, which leads to a higher number of hospital admissions and is the main cause of stroke of cardioembolic origin. According to the recommendations of the clinical practice guidelines, therapeutic strategy in AF has as its priority objectives, among others, the correction of the rhythm disorder with reversion, control of the heart rate, and prevention of thromboembolism. Anticoagulant treatment with warfarin or acenocoumarol is the keystone to the prevention of stroke in patients with AF, and has been the standard treatment for more than half a century. Their use in clinical practice, although it is widely unknown, requires regular monitoring to maintain the correct dose, which makes it difficult to be accepted by patients and doctors. The new oral synthetic anticoagulants are an important advance in the prevention of stroke and systemic embolism in patients with FA. Some of them, such as dabigatran, have recently been approved in the USA and Canada in the indication of arterial thromboembolic complications in patients with AF. If this indication, as is expected, is approved in our country, the importance of the role of coumarin derivatives (Sintrom®) will not last much longer. © 2011 Elsevier Espana, S.L. and SEMERGEN. All rights reserved.