I will briefly highlight how physicians should be looking at these novel anticoagulants (NOACs), based on the trials in which they were compared versus warfarin. Figure 2 provides an aggregate look at the results from the major randomized trials of these drugs versus treatment with warfarin for patients with AFib and confirms that the stroke or systemic embolic event rates clearly seem to favor the NOACs, particularly in regards to intracerebral hemorrhage.[1]

An important point to note is that the stroke outcome is actually a composite of both ischemic stroke and hemorrhagic stroke and, as we will see, this is an important distinction.