Abstract
Currently, stroke prevention and systemic thromboembolism prevention using anticoagulants is one of the three important pillars in the strategy for managing atrial fibrillation. Among these, direct-acting oral anticoagulants (DOACs) have many advantages over warfarin and are recommended as the preferred choice if there are no contraindications.1 However, whether there are differences in efficacy and safety among DOACs in preventing thromboembolism in atrial fibrillation patients remains uncertain in the context of a lack of randomized controlled trials directly comparing DOACs, and existing data are based on retrospective analyses from different cohort trials. An observational, retrospective study based on propensity score matching by a group of Israeli authors published in 2023 in the journal Cardiovascular Pharmacotherapy, conducted to compare the efficacy and safety among rivaroxaban, apixaban, and dabigatran, has added important information on this issue. The content of this study will be summarized below.2