• Gerald V Naccarelli, Mohammed Ruzieh, Deborah L Wolbrette, Mauricio Sendra-Ferrer, John van Harskamp, Barbara Bentz, Gregory Caputo, Nathan McConkey, Kevin Mills, Stephen Wasemiller, Jovan Plamenac, Douglas Leslie, Frendy D Glasser, and Thomas W Abendroth.
• Penn State University Heart and Vascular Institute, Penn State University College of Medicine, Hershey, Pa. Electronic address: gnaccarelli@pennstatehealth.psu.edu.
• Am. J. Med. 2021 Jun 1; 134 (6): e366-e373.

BackgroundMultiple registries have reported that >40% of high-risk atrial fibrillation patients are not taking oral anticoagulants. The purpose of our study was to determine the presence or absence of active atrial fibrillation and CHA2DS2-VASc (Congestive heart failure, Hypertension, Age ≥75 y, Diabetes mellitus, prior Stroke [or transient ischemic attack or thromboembolism], Vascular disease, Age 65-74 y, Sex category) risk factors to accurately identify high-risk atrial fibrillation (CHA2DS2-VASc ≥2) patients requiring oral anticoagulants and the magnitude of the anticoagulant treatment gap.MethodsWe retrospectively adjudicated 6514 patients with atrial fibrillation documented by at least one of: billing diagnosis, electronic medical record encounter diagnosis, electronic medical record problem list, or electrocardiogram interpretation.ResultsAfter review, 4555/6514 (69.9%) had active atrial fibrillation, while 1201 had no documented history of atrial fibrillation and 758 had a history of atrial fibrillation that was no longer active. After removing the 1201 patients without a confirmed atrial fibrillation diagnosis, oral anticoagulant use in high-risk patients increased to 71.1% (P < .0001 compared with 62.9% at baseline). Oral anticoagulant use increased to 79.7% when the 758 inactive atrial fibrillation patients were also eliminated from the analysis (P < .0001 compared with baseline). In the active high-risk atrial fibrillation group, there was no significant difference in the use of oral anticoagulants between men (80.7%) and women (78.8%) with a CHA2DS2-VASc ≥2, or in women with a CHA2DS2-VASc ≥3 (79.9%).ConclusionsCurrent registries and health system health records with unadjudicated diagnoses over-report the number of high-risk atrial fibrillation patients not taking oral anticoagulants. Expert adjudication identifies a smaller treatment gap than previously described.Copyright © 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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