Age Threshold for Increased Stroke Risk Among Patients With Atrial Fibrillation A Nationwide Cohort Study From Taiwan

This study hypothesized that the age threshold (65 years) used in the CHA2DS2-VASc system for initiating oral anticoagulants (OACs) might be lower in Taiwanese AF patients than in non-Asians.MethodsWe used the National Health Insurance Research Database in Taiwan to study 186,570 nonanticoagulated AF patients. There were 9,416 males with a CHA2DS2-VASc score of 0 and 6,390 females with a CHA2DS2-VASc score of 1. Their risk of ischemic stroke was analyzed with stratification on the basis of age.ResultsThe annual risks of ischemic stroke for males (score 0) and females (score 1) were 1.15% and 1.12%, respectively, and continuously increased from younger to older age groups, with an increment in stroke risk evident for patients >50 years of age. At a cutoff of 50 years, patients could be further stratified into 2 subgroups with different stroke risks (>50 years of age: 1.78%/year; vs. 
Source: Journal of the American College of Cardiology - Category: Cardiology Source Type: research