Taylor and colleagues carried out a systematic review to examine
the benefits and risks of long term anticoagulation (warfarin)
compared with antiplatelet treatment (aspirin/indoprofen) in patients
with non-rheumatic atrial fibrillation.
(See this paper as: Taylor et al. Systematic review of long term
anticoagulation or antiplatelet treatment in patients with non-rheumatic
atrial fibrillation. Br Med J 2001, 322:321–326).
A. Why did the authors include only randomized controlled trials
in their systematic review of the selected topic?
B. The authors report that the overall odds ratio for fatal
vascular outcomes (myocardial infarction and/or thromboembolism)
was 0.86 (95% CI 0.63–1.17) for anticoagulation versus antiplatelet
treatment (figure).
Is this effect “statistical significant”?
C. If you had a patient with heart valve replacement, could
you ap-ply the results of this review for the management of his/her
atrial fibrillation with either anticoagulation or antiplatelet
treatment?
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