Table 1: Clinical characteristics of the cardioembolic patients under each anticoagulant therapy with VKA or NOACs as first prevention post cardioembolic stroke.
VKA: vitamin K antagonists, warfarin, NOACs:non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants, CKD: chronic kidney disease, PT-INR: prothrombin time-international normalized ratio, rt-PA: recombinant tissue plasminogen activator, NIHSS: National Institute of Health Stroke Scale, mRS: modified Rankin Scale
| VKA | NOACs | |
| n = 27 | n = 57 | P value |
| Basic characteristics |
| Age(y) | 81.2 | 79.5 | 0.56 |
| Male gender (%) | 15(55.5) | 27(47.4) | 0.48 |
| Body weight (kg) | 53.8 | 54.3 | 0.84 |
| Type of atrial fibrillation(chronic/parixismal) | 24(88.9%)/3(11.1%) | 34(59.7%)/23(40.3%) | 0.01 |
| Risk stratification |
| CHADS2 score | 4.7 | 4 | <0.01 |
| CHA2DS2-VASc score | 6.1 | 5.1 | <0.001 |
| HAS-BLED score | 3.5 | 3.0 | 0.04 |
| Hypertension (%) | 23(85.2) | 50(87.7) | 0.74 |
| Diabetes mellitus (%) | 7(25.9) | 11(19.3) | 0.48 |
| Dyslipidemia (%) | 9(33.3) | 18(31.6) | 0.87 |
| CKD (%) | 17(63.0) | 12(21.1) | <0.001 |
| Concurrent antiplatelet | 3(11.1) | 13(22.8) | 0.95 |
| Blood chemistry |
| PT-INR on admission | 1.39 | 1.05 | <0.0001 |
| D-dimer (μg/ml) | 2.58 | 2.58 | 0.99 |
| Ccr (mL/min) | 52.1 | 64.5 | 0.03 |
| BNP (pg/ml) | 331.5 | 231.8 | 0.01 |
| Treatment |
| rt-PA thrombolysis (%) | 2(7.4) | 4(7.0) | 0.94 |
| Outcomes |
| Period of hospitalization (days) | 25.8 | 21.1 | 0.44 |
| NIHSS on admission | 10.3 | 7.0 | 0.01 |
| NIHSS on discharge | 7.9 | 5.1 | 0.02 |
| Improvement in NIHSS | -2.5 | -1.9 | 0.39 |
| mRS on discharge | 3.1 | 3.0 | <0.05 |
| Tube feeding | 9(33.3) | 7(12.3) | 0.02 |
| Recurrent stroke occurred | 7(25.9) | 10(17.5) | 0.37 |