ICUSI questionnaire validation. Quality of anticoagulation in patients with atrial fibrillation treated with vitamin K antagonists

Abstract Introduction and objectives Vitamin K antagonists (VKAs) are still widely used for stroke prevention in atrial fibrillation. However, the access to international normalised ratio (INR) determinations is sometimes difficult and the time in therapeutic range (TTR) is not always available. The aim of this study was to design and validate a simple and easy-to-use questionnaire that enables the identification of atrial fibrillation patients with poor quality of anticoagulation. Methods This is a national, multi-centre, observational, and cross-sectional study including consecutive non-valvular atrial fibrillation patients receiving VKA therapy and followed up at cardiology clinics. At inclusion, INR determinations during the last 6 months were analysed to determine the TTR and the ICUSI questionnaire was completed. A TTR Results A total of 813 patients (55% men, 75 ± 9 years old) were available for the analyses. The mean TTR was 62.2% ± 20.3% and 427 (52.5%) patients had a TTR Conclusions The ICUSI questionnaire has shown a good predictive performance for the identification of poor TTR in the absence of full access to the INR determinations in atrial fibrillation patients under VKA therapy.