Stroke is a common neurological disease, especially in patients with atrial fibrillation. The use of antiplatelets showed a significant benefit and reduction in mortality. However, the use of anticoagulants in stroke prevention has been controversial. This study to review the medical literature to investigate the updates in the use of anticoagulants for stroke prevention in the past decade. The literature was evaluated through PubMed, Embase, Medline, and Ovid database in the duration between 2010 and 2020. The searching terms included were a combination of anticoagulation, stroke, and prevention. Following this, the results were refined to include only original research articles evaluating the use of anticoagulants in stroke patients. Eligible trials mentioned the type of anticoagulant that was used. A total of 1862 articles were recovered. After the exclusion of articles on animals and including only analyses on humans, 58 studies appeared. A total of eight studies were considered eligible, covering a total of 41,458 patients who had atrial fibrillation and required measures for stroke prevention. Three studies were observational cohort, whereas four studies were retrospective and one pharmacoeconomic study. It was concluded that anticoagulants in patients with CHADS2-VASC scored greater than or equal to two could prevent stroke in atrial fibrillation patients. new oral anticoagulants were preferred in non-valvular atrial fibrillation patients.
Key words: Anticoagulant, stroke, prevention, updates.
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