Atrial fibrillation is an irregular heart rhythm, or arrhythmia, affecting about two million Americans, according to the American Heart Association. One way to treat atrial fibrillation is with a clot-inhibiting drug called warfarin.
Elderly people are, by virtue of their age, at greater risk of stroke.
Additionally, warfarin must be used cautiously in those over 80 years of age because of the increased risk of internal bleeding, one of the major potential side effects of using the drug. Prior studies have shown the usefulness of warfarin in middle-aged people who have the heart rhythm disorder. Because the elderly aren t usually included in clinical trials, the usefulness of warfarin in the elderly was still unclear. Gage says this is the first study to find a statistically significant benefit of using warfarin in the elderly. Researchers studied 597 Medicare beneficiaries who had atrial fibrillation and found that when compared to those not receiving the drug, people getting warfarin had a 24 percent reduced risk of death and hospitalizations from stroke or mini-stroke.