Apixaban is safer than rivaroxaban in AF: study
Choosing between the two drugs is a choice between thrombotic or haemorrhagic risk
Apixaban is associated with a lower risk of major bleeding and thrombotic events compared with rivaroxaban, a large real-world data analysis shows.
US and Canadian researchers, who assessed outcomes of 90,000 elderly patients with non-valvular AF who were newly prescribed one of the novel oral anticoagulants (NOACs), said their results confirmed apixaban as the safer option.
But Professor Tom Marwick, director of the Baker IDI in Melbourne, said such ‘big data’ studies did not take account of the need for an individualised approach to therapy.
“There are different reasons why different drugs might be chosen at a particular time,” he said.
