Risks and benefits of combining aspirin with anticoagulant therapy in patients with atrial fibrillation: an exploratory analysis of stroke prevention using an oral thrombin inhibitor in atrial fibrillation (SPORTIF) trials.

Background: Aspirin is used in combination with anticoagulant therapy in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF), but evidence of additional efficacy is not available.

Methods: We compared ischemic events and bleeding in the SPORTIF III and IV randomized trials of anticoagulation with warfarin (international normalized ratio 2-3) or fixed-dose ximelagatran. Low-dose aspirin (<100 mg/d) was allowed based on prevailing guidelines.

Low-risk patients with chest pain and without evidence of myocardial infarction may be safely discharged from emergency department.

Aims: This study is an audit of the risk stratification of patients admitted to a university hospital emergency department with a suspected acute coronary syndrome (ACS). The main aim of the study was to investigate the prognosis of those patients who were discharged to home from the emergency room (ER) or adjacent chest pain observation unit (CPU).

Methods And Results: Three thousand one hundred and seven consecutive patients admitted to the ER with a suspected ACS were retrospectively identified.