The Lancet Neurology today published affirmative results of an analysis of the very important Randomized Evaluation of Long-Term Anticoagulant Therapy (or RE-LY®) trial. It is the largest atrial fibrillation (AF) outcomes trial that has till date been completed, with 18,113 patients covered in 44 nations all over the world.

The new results are 100% in accordance with the results from the RE-LY® trial. They demonstrate the benefits AF patients having had a stroke or atransient ischemic attack (TIA) previously can have if they get themselves treated with dabigatran etexilate 1, 2, 3.

The recent analysis from RE-LY® was based on 3,623 AF patients who had earlier suffered a stroke or TIA before getting enrolled for the trial. The results of the analysis were in accordance with the total results of the trial regarding the main efficacy and safety results.

This consistency of results was confirmed by an interaction analysis. A 150 mg dosage of dabigatran etexilate reduced substantially the relative risk by 25% as against the properly controlled warfarin in both the stroke and systemic embolism endpoint. However, because the sample was five-fold smaller in size than the sample population used in the RE-LY® trial, the minute difference was not of statistical significance.