Stroke prevention in atrial fibrillation: State of the art

Stroke prevention is the cornerstone of the management of patients with atrial fibrillation (AF). Individual stroke risk stratification is generally the first step of deciding whether oral anticoagulation (OAC) will benefit patients with AF. Given that existing approaches to the prediction of ‘high-risk’ subjects are of limited value, the initial focus should be the identification of ‘low-risk’ patients who do not need antithrombotic therapy....