Stuart J Connolly, Michael D Ezekowitz, Salim Yusuf, John Eikelboom, Jonas Oldgren, Amit Parekh, Janice Pogue, Paul A Reilly, Ellison Themeles, Jeanne Varrone, Susan Wang, Marco Alings, Denis Xavier, Jun Zhu, Rafael Diaz, Basil S Lewis, Harald Darius, Hans-Christoph Diener, Campbell D Joyner, Lars Wallentin
BACKGROUND: Warfarin reduces the risk of stroke in patients with atrial fibrillation but increases the risk of hemorrhage and is difficult to use. Dabigatran is a new oral direct thrombin inhibitor. METHODS: In this noninferiority trial, we randomly assigned 18,113 patients who had atrial fibrillation and a risk of stroke to receive, in a blinded fashion, fixed doses of dabigatran--110 mg or 150 mg twice daily--or, in an unblinded fashion, adjusted-dose warfarin...
September 17, 2009: New England Journal of Medicine