Stroke – Atrial Fibrillation – Medication

Transcript

With A-fib, there are four major drugs that we can choose as far as prevention. These are very effective drugs, clearly better than things like aspirin. These are strong blood thinners. The four drugs are warfarin or coumadin. This is the drug that’s been around the longest and we have the most experience with it. The drawback to Warfarin is that it does tend to cause more drug interactions and evolves blood tests on somewhat of a regular basis and careful attention to the diet. There are three newer medications that have just come in the market in the last few years. A drug called Pradaxa, and another called Eliquis and lastly Zeralto. These are drugs that had the distinct advantage of not requiring blood tests, of having minimal drug interactions. The major drawback to them is that there are no blood tests, and so that can make it a challenge if the drug has to be reversed for any reason.