Oral anticoagulants and risk of acute liver injury in patients with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation: a propensity-weighted nationwide cohort study

Insufficient real-world data on acute liver injury (ALI) risk associated with oral anticoagulants (OACs) exist in patients with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation (NVAF). Using the French national healthcare databases, a propensity-weighted nationwide cohort study was performed in NVAF patients initiating OACs from 2011 to 2016, considering separately those (1) with no prior liver disease (PLD) as main population, (2) with PLD, (3) with a history of chronic alcoholism. A Cox proportional hazards model was used to estimate the hazard ratio with 95% confidence interval (HR [95% CI]) of serious ALI (hospitalised ALI or liver transplantation) during the first year of treatment, for each non-vitamin K antagonist (VKA) oral anticoagulant (NOAC: dabigatran, rivaroxaban, apixaban) versus VKA. In patients with no PLD (N = 434,015), only rivaroxaban new users were at increased risk of serious ALI compared to VKA initiation (adjusted HR: 1.41 [1.05–1.91]). In patients with chronic alcoholism history (N = 13,173), only those initiating dabigatran were at increased risk of serious ALI compared to VKA (2.88 [1.74–4.76]) but an ancillary outcome suggested that differential clinical follow-up between groups might partly explain this association. In conclusion, this study does not suggest an increase of the 1-year risk of ALI in NOAC versus VKA patients with AF.