Baseline characteristics and event rates among anticoagulated patients with atrial fibrillation in practice and pivotal NOAC trials

The data report details the baseline characteristics and observed outcomes among patients included in a large US administrative claims database (Optum Labs Data Warehouse) and those enrolled in the pivotal phase III clinical trials examining apixaban, dabigratan, edoxaban and rivaroxaban versus warfarin for the prevention of cardio embolism (Granger et al., 2011; Cannolly et al., 2009; Patel et al., 2011; Giugliano et al., 2013) [1], [2], [3], [4]. These data are to be interpreted in the context of the linked publication (Noseworthy et al., 2017) [5]. These data illustrate baseline characteristics in patients treated in routine practice and those enrolled in clinical trials. For instance, patients treated with apixaban in practice tended to be slightly older and we more likely to be female than those enrolled in the apixaban clinical trial. Patient treated with rivaroxaban in practice tended to have lower CHADS(2) scores than those included in the rivaroxaban clinical trial. Overall, and stratified by baseline CHADS(2) scores, patients treated with NOACs in routine practice had comparable or slightly lower stroke risks than those in the clinical trials. Patients treated with NOACs in routine practice had slightly higher bleeding risk in practice, particularly in high-risk patients with CHADS(2) ≥ 3, compared to those in the clinical trials. These data may serve as a benchmark for realized outcomes among anticoagulated patients with atrial fibrillation in the United States and may serve as a useful comparison to other datasets or countries.