Observational Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Cardiol. Nov 26, 2022; 14(11): 576-598
Published online Nov 26, 2022. doi: 10.4330/wjc.v14.i11.576
Time trends in antithrombotic therapy prescription patterns: Real-world monocentric study in hospitalized patients with atrial fibrillation
Maurizio Giuseppe Abrignani, Alberto Lombardo, Annabella Braschi, Nicolò Renda, Vincenzo Abrignani, Renzo M Lombardo
Maurizio Giuseppe Abrignani, Alberto Lombardo, Operative Unit of Cardiology, Department of Medicine, S. Antonio Abate Hospital of Trapani, ASP Trapani, Trapani 91100, Trapani, Italy
Annabella Braschi, Department of Psychology, Educational Science and Human Movement, University of Palermo, Palermo 90100, Palermo, Italy
Nicolò Renda, Department of Medicine and Surgery, University of Parma, Parma 43100, Parma, Italy
Vincenzo Abrignani, Operative Unit of Internal Medicine with Stroke Care, Department of Health Promotion, Mother and Child Care, Internal Medicine and Medical Specialties (ProMISE) "G. D'Alessandro", University of Palermo, Palermo 90100, Palermo, Italy
Renzo M Lombardo, Department of Cardiology, Operative Unit of Cardiology, Department of Medicine, S. Antonio Abate Hospital of Trapani, Trapani 91100, Trapani, Italy
Author contributions: Abrignani MG was responsible for the conception and design of the study, and wrote the first draft of the manuscript; Lombardo A, Braschi A, Renda N, Abrignani V, and Lombardo RM contributed to the design of the study and made critical revisions of the manuscript related to its important intellectual content; and all authors gave final approval of the version of the article to be published.
Institutional review board statement: As this study was a retrospective review of a database with fully anonymized data and without risk of patients’ identification, it does not require ethical approval in our Institution. Permission to use patient data from this facility has been obtained from the Head of Cardiology Unit, S. Antonio Abate Hospital of Trapani.
Informed consent statement: Patients were not required to give informed consent for the study as the analysis used anonymous clinical data that were obtained from a database.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors have no disclosures or conflicts of interest.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement—checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement—checklist of items.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Maurizio Giuseppe Abrignani, MD, Doctor, Operative Unit of Cardiology, Department of Medicine, S. Antonio Abate Hospital of Trapani, ASP Trapani, Via Mazzini 1, Trapani 91100, Trapani, Italy. maur.abri@alice.it
Received: March 13, 2022
Peer-review started: March 13, 2022
First decision: June 8, 2022
Revised: July 4, 2022
Accepted: October 27, 2022
Article in press: October 27, 2022
Published online: November 26, 2022
Processing time: 255 Days and 10.4 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: In this study, the proportion of patients on oral antithrombotic therapy, with or without an antiplatelet agent, increased significantly from 2010 to 2021. This rise was due to increasing use of direct oral anticoagulants, with or without antiplatelet agents. At the same time, there was a gradual decline in the use of vitamin K antagonists, with or without antiplatelet drugs, and of antiplatelet therapy, alone or in double combination, while the proportion of patients not receiving antithrombotic therapy decreased. These data suggest a slow and gradual guidelines implementation process.