ABSTRACT

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is an arrhytmia seen frequently in subjects over 60 years of age. Besides hemodynamic changes, it is associated with increased risk of systemic embolism. In this study, we investigated the incidence of warfarin use and the reasons of not using warfarin.

The study consisted of 100 patients with chronic AF admitted to emergency and cardiac departments (age=68±14 years, male:female ratio=72:28). The patients were asked to fill a data collecting form during their stay in policlinic. The continuous variables were expressed as mean±1 standart deviation. The comparison of continuous variables were made with Mann-Whitney U test and categorical variables were compared by chi square test. Statistical significance was set at P value < 0.05.

It was found that wafarin use is less in older patients, in patients with lower education level, in patients without heart disease and in patients without prior thromboembolic event. Male to female ratio and known risk factor was not different between groups. The mostly declared reason of not using warfarin was lack of prescription (n=38, 71 %). It was followed by presence of adverse reaction (n=10, 19 %) and patient incompliance (n=6, 11 %).

In conclusion, warfarin is not used as much as it is indicated in patients with AF. The doctors are the primarily responsible of this.