Objective To investigate the effects of different timing of initiation of rivaroxaban anti-coagulation therapy on the efficacy and bleeding risk of atrial fibrillation patients after stroke.Methods A total of 336 patients with atrial fibrillation and stroke admitted in our hospital be-tween January 2021 and December 2023 were consecutively enrolled,and randomly divided into an experimental group(165 cases)and a control group(171 cases).The experimental group received rivaroxaban treatment within 48 h of symptom onset,whereas the control group initiated oral ri-varoxaban treatment on the 3rd,6th,and 12th day post-stroke onset,respectively,depending on stroke severity(mild,moderate,and severe).Their baseline clinical data were collected,and all of them were followed up till 90 d after stroke.The incidences of recurrent ischemic stroke,symp-tomatic intracranial hemorrhage and extracranial hemorrhage,mortality,and proportion of pa-tients with mRS score≤ 2 and distribution of the score were observed and analyzed in the two groups.Results During a 90-day follow-up period,the patients with moderate stroke from the ex-perimental group of patients exhibited a significantly lower rate of recurrent ischemic stroke than those in the control group(5.4%vs 15.9%,P=0.037).However,for patients with mild and se-vere stroke,no obvious difference was observed in the primary endpoint of recurrent ischemic stroke between the experimental and control groups(3.0%vs 3.2%,12.5%vs 14.8%,P>0.05).Though no statistical differences were observed,lower rates of symptomatic intracranial hemor-rhage(1.5%vs 3.2%,5.4%vs 9.8%),reduced incidence of extracranial hemorrhage(9.0%vs 14.5%,12.2%vs 15.9%),and lower mRS score[1(0,2)vs 1(1,2),3(1,4)vs 3(2,4)]were seen in the patients with mild and moderate stroke from the experimental group when compared with the control group(P>0.05).Similarly,there were no statistically differences for the severe stroke patients between the experimental and control groups(P>0.05)in the incidence of extracranial hemorrhage(20.8%vs 22.2%),rate of symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage(20.8%vs 7.4%),mortality(8.3%vs 3.7%),and mRS score[4(3,4)vs 3(3,4)].Two patients from the experimen-tal group died,with one case due to secondary pulmonary infection and the other due to brainstem hemorrhage.In the control group,only one death occurred due to brainstem hemorrhage.Conclu-sion For atrial fibrillation patients,anticoagulation with rivaroxaban within 48 h after stroke has no significant increase in the risk of bleeding,reduces the proportion of recurrent ischemic stroke in patients with moderate stroke,and may improve the prognosis of patients.
atrial fibrillationstrokefibrinolytic agentshemorrhagerivaroxabanrisk evaluation and mitigation