NDT Advance Access originally published online on August 7, 2009
Nephrology Dialysis Transplantation 2009 24(11):3285-3287; doi:10.1093/ndt/gfp385
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© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press [on behalf of ERA-EDTA]. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org
Coumarin use in dialysis patients with arterial fibrillation: yes, after individual risk stratification
Division of Nephrology and Dialysis, Department of Medicine III, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
Correspondence and offprint requests to: Walter H. Hörl; E-mail: walter.hoerl@meduniwien.ac.at
Keywords: atrial fibrillation; haemodialysis; warfarin
| The first 10% of the full text of this article appears below. |
Atrial fibrillation (AF) is quite prevalent in patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD). Its presence is associated with a significant risk for morbidity and mortality. The prevalence of AF ranges from 0.4% to 1.0% in the general population. Its prevalence is, however, age dependent and 
8% in subjects with an age 
80 years. In patients with ESRD, the AF prevalence seems to be 10- to 20-fold higher and ranges from 7% to 27% [1] depending on age and comorbidities of the patients. In the ESRD patient population, AF is highly correlated with the diagnosis of structural heart disease such as coronary artery disease, valvular calcifications and left ventricular hypertrophy as a result of long-term exposure to traditional and non-traditional risk factors. Electrolyte disturbances as well as overactivity of the sympathetic nervous system and the renin–angiotensin–aldosterone system contribute to