Dabigatran or warfarin for the prevention of stroke in atrial fibrillation? A closer look at the RE-LY trial.
Expert Opin Pharmacother. 2012 Mar 22;
Authors: Dinicolantonio JJ
Abstract
Introduction: In the Randomized Evaluation of Long-term Anticoagulant Therapy (RE-LY) trial, dabigatran 150 mg was shown to be superior to warfarin for the prevention of stroke or systemic embolism. However, there are some concerns with the RE-LY trial, such as its open-label design, potential unblinding of "blinded" adjudicators, the use of concomitant warfarin-aspirin (ASA), the disparity between baseline use of nonselective NSAIDs; the high unequal rate of drop-outs; unaccounted drop-ins; high rates of major bleeds in warfarin-treated patients, despite being a low risk population; and rates of major bleeds that do not match historic warfarin trials. Furthermore, although dabigatran offers potential advantages versus warfarin, there are disadvantages that must be taken into consideration before a patient is switched from the latter to the former. This review will summarize the flaws of the RE-LY trial as well as the clinically important advantages and disadvantages of dabigatran and warfarin. Areas covered: This review examines the differences between dabigatran and warfarin in terms of side effects, drug-drug interactions, drug-food interactions, and potential reasons for using one anticoagulant rather than the other. The main focus of this review is a discussion of the design, procedures and results of the RE-LY trial. Expert opinion: There seem to be major flaws with the RE-LY trial. A double-blinded trial should be performed testing dabigatran against warfarin to verify the results of the RE-LY trial.
PMID: 22435606 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]