An effective risk stratification which could
help us identify high-risk patients who should take oral anticoagulants (OACs) is
the key step for stroke prevention in atrial fibrillation (AF). Several scoring
systems were available to estimate the risk of stroke in AF, including CHADS2,
CHA2DS2-VASc, R2CHADS2 and ATRIA
scores, which were constituted of different clinical risk factors. Recently,
several new OACs (NOACs) were demonstrated to be at least as effective as
warfarin in stroke prevention and were much safer regarding the risk of
intra-cranial hemorrhage. In the era of NOACs, the roles of scoring schemes have shifted to identify
patinets with a truly low-risk of thromboembolic events, in whom OACs were not
recommended. The CHA2DS2-VASc score is powerful
in selecting “truly low-risk” patients who are not necessary to receive
anticoagulation therapies. Whether the new-emerging scoring systems, R2CHADS2 and ATRIA scores, could further improve the stroke prediction in AF deserves a
further study.
Credits: Tze-Fan Chao, M.D; Shih-Ann Chen, M.D.