Tze-Fan Chao1, Chia-Jen Liu2, Ta-Chuan Tuan1, Su-Jung Chen3, Kang-Ling Wang1, Yenn-Jiang Lin1, Shih-Lin Chang4, Li-Wei Lo1, Yu-Feng Hu1, Tzeng-Ji Chen5, Chern-En Chiang6, Shih-Ann Chen1. 1. Division of Cardiology, Department of Medicine, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan; Institute of Clinical Medicine, and Cardiovascular Research Center, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan. 2. Division of Hematology and Oncology, Department of Medicine, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan; Institute of Public Health and School of Medicine, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan. 3. Institute of Public Health and School of Medicine, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan; Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, Taipei Veterans General Hospital Su-Ao and Yuanshan branch, I-Lan, Taiwan. 4. Division of Cardiology, Department of Medicine, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan; Institute of Clinical Medicine, and Cardiovascular Research Center, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan. Electronic address: cechiang@vghtpe.gov.tw. 5. Department of Family Medicine, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan. 6. Division of Cardiology, Department of Medicine, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan; Institute of Clinical Medicine, and Cardiovascular Research Center, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan; General Clinical Research Center, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan; Department of Medical Research and Education, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan. Electronic address: epsachen@ms41.hinet.net.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Both U.S. and European guidelines recommend use of the CHA2DS2-VASc rather than CHADS2 score for stroke risk stratification in atrial fibrillation (AF). However, the CHA2DS2-VASc score has not been proved to be better than CHADS2 score for Asians in a large-scale study. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to compare the accuracies of CHADS2 and CHA2DS2-VASc scores in predicting ischemic stroke in Chinese patients. METHODS: This study used the National Health Insurance Research Database in Taiwan. A total of 186,570 AF patients without antithrombotic therapies were selected as the study cohort. The clinical end-point was occurrence of ischemic stroke. RESULTS: During follow-up of 3.4 ± 3.7 years, 23,723 patients (12.7%) experienced ischemic stroke. The CHA2DS2-VASc score performed better than CHADS2 score in predicting ischemic stroke assessed by c-indexes (0.698 vs 0.659, P <.0001). Among 25,286 patients with a CHADS2 score of 0, the CHA2DS2-VASc score ranged from 0 to 3, and the annual stroke rate ranged from 1.15% to 4.47%. Compared to patients with a CHA2DS2-VASc score of 0, the hazard ratio of ischemic stroke for patients with a CHA2DS2-VASc score of 3 was 3.998. CONCLUSION: Patients with a CHADS2 score of 0 were not necessarily "low risk," and the annual stroke rate can be as high as 4.47% when patients were further stratified by the CHA2DS2-VASc score. In contrast, patients with a CHA2DS2-VASc score of 0 had a truly low risk of ischemic stroke, with an annual stroke rate around 1.15%. As with Caucasians, the CHA2DS2-VASc score should be used for stroke risk stratification in Asians.
BACKGROUND: Both U.S. and European guidelines recommend use of the CHA2DS2-VASc rather than CHADS2 score for stroke risk stratification in atrial fibrillation (AF). However, the CHA2DS2-VASc score has not been proved to be better than CHADS2 score for Asians in a large-scale study. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to compare the accuracies of CHADS2 and CHA2DS2-VASc scores in predicting ischemic stroke in Chinese patients. METHODS: This study used the National Health Insurance Research Database in Taiwan. A total of 186,570 AFpatients without antithrombotic therapies were selected as the study cohort. The clinical end-point was occurrence of ischemic stroke. RESULTS: During follow-up of 3.4 ± 3.7 years, 23,723 patients (12.7%) experienced ischemic stroke. The CHA2DS2-VASc score performed better than CHADS2 score in predicting ischemic stroke assessed by c-indexes (0.698 vs 0.659, P <.0001). Among 25,286 patients with a CHADS2 score of 0, the CHA2DS2-VASc score ranged from 0 to 3, and the annual stroke rate ranged from 1.15% to 4.47%. Compared to patients with a CHA2DS2-VASc score of 0, the hazard ratio of ischemic stroke for patients with a CHA2DS2-VASc score of 3 was 3.998. CONCLUSION:Patients with a CHADS2 score of 0 were not necessarily "low risk," and the annual stroke rate can be as high as 4.47% when patients were further stratified by the CHA2DS2-VASc score. In contrast, patients with a CHA2DS2-VASc score of 0 had a truly low risk of ischemic stroke, with an annual stroke rate around 1.15%. As with Caucasians, the CHA2DS2-VASc score should be used for stroke risk stratification in Asians.
Authors: Muhammad Umer Siddiqui; Ahmed K Pasha; Ibtisam Rauf; Justin Z Lee; Muhammad Danial Siddiqui; Youssef Yaacoub; Mohammad Reza Movahed Journal: Clin Med Res Date: 2020-10-14