Introduction:

Atrial fibrillation is the most common arrhythmia, and it is associated with a higher risk of thromboembolic events requiring anticoagulation therapy. Nowadays there is no test that allows monitoring the therapeutic range when using new anticoagulants.

Motivation:

To describe thromboelastographic patterns in patients with atrial fibrillation who are taking anticoagulants with rivaroxaban in the Cardiology Department at the University Hospital Fundación Santa Fe de Bogotá.

Material and methods:

The present cross-sectional study collected data relating to 30 patients with atrial fibrillation who received anticoagulation therapy with rivaroxaban between July 10th 2013 and January 6th 2015.General characteristics of the sample, as well as paramametres obtained from the thromboelastography, and they were compared to the thromboelastographic patterns according to the anticoagulant dose.

Results:

Average age was 75.8 years and the main indication for anticoagulation therapy was paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (56.67%). In more than 60% of patients a prolonged reaction time and low coagulation index was obtained. The remaining parametres from the thromboelastography were located within the normal range in most cases. No statistically significant differences were found in thromboelastographic patterns when comparing the 15 mg versus 20 mg rivaroxaban dose.

Conclusion:

Thromboelastographic patterns obtained in most study participants were characterized by a high reaction time and low coagulation index, possibly due to the effect of the factor Xa inhibitor.

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