To their possible detriment, a sizable minority of patients with non-valvular AF are receiving oral anticoagulants (OAC) in addition to antiplatelet drugs, according to data from an AF registry.

“In the large multinational GARFIELD study, we found that approximately one in eight patients with AF are newly prescribed antiplatelet therapy along with anticoagulation, with or without cardiovascular indications for the antiplatelet therapy,” said lead author Dr Keith Fox of the University of Edinburgh, Scotland.

To learn more about these patients, and how they compared with those not prescribed antiplatelets, Dr Fox and colleagues analysed data on more than 24,000 patients in the study, none of whom had previously received either type of therapy.

Some 12.5% of patients were given OAC plus antiplatelets, and the remainder were given OACs alone, the researchers reported in JAMA Network Open.