Outcomes associated with warfarin time in therapeutic range among US veterans with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation.

BACKGROUND

Poor quality of warfarin control (time in therapeutic range [TTR] < 65%) can lead to increased risk of adverse events. The objective of this study was to examine the overall quality of international normalized ratio (INR) control and the association of TTR with clinical outcomes including stroke, major bleeding, and all-cause mortality among US warfarin users.

METHODS AND RESULTS

This retrospective observational cohort study utilized the US Veterans Affairs electronic medical records database (VA EMR). Patients with NVAF who newly initiated warfarin from 1 January 2005 to 31 December 2015 were grouped into two cohorts based on TTR <65% or ≥65%. TTR was computed from INR test results. Clinical outcomes assessed were stroke/systemic embolism (SE), hemorrhagic stroke, ischemic stroke, and major bleeding, defined based on hospitalization with those conditions as primary diagnosis, as well as all-cause mortality. Patients were followed from warfarin initiation to the first occurrence of an outcome or censoring. Propensity score weighted time-varying Cox regression was used to evaluate the risk of the clinical events. A total of 127,385 NVAF patients with mean TTR of 51% were included. TTR <65% was observed in 65% of patients. Mean CHADS-VAS score (SD) was 2.9 (1.5) in the low TTR cohort and 2.7 (1.4) in the high TTR cohort. Patients with TTR <65% had a higher risk for any stroke/SE (HR: 1.57; 95% CI: 1.41-1.75), major bleeding (HR: 2.78; 95% CI: 2.55-3.03) and all-cause mortality (HR: 1.73; 95% CI: 1.67-1.79).

CONCLUSIONS

The observed quality of warfarin control in VA EMR suggests room for improvement given the association with elevated risk of adverse clinical outcomes.