A-Fib-Free After Catheter Ablation, Patient on Anticoagulation Therapy for 10 years Develops Cerebral Microbleeds and Associated Early Dementia.

By Steve S. Ryan, Updated March 2016

Dr. John Day, in an editorial in The Journal of Innovations in Cardiac Rhythm Management, described his patient, Bob, who had been on anticoagulation therapy for 10 years, even though he had had a successful catheter ablation and was A-Fib free.

Bob was suffering from early dementia. A cranial MRI revealed many cerebral microbleeds, probably caused by taking anticoagulants for years. Both antiplatelet and anticoagulant therapy significantly increase the risk of cerebral microbleeds which are associated with dementia. These microbleeds are usually permanent and irreversible.

Dr. Day asked, “Could it be that this was an iatrogenic (caused by a doctor’s activity or therapy) case of dementia? Was his 10 years of anticoagulant use for atrial fibrillation the cause of his dementia?”

The 2014 CHA₂DS₂-VASc Guidelines for Anticoagulation Therapy

Dr. Day discusses the new CHA₂DS₂-VASc guidelines for anticoagulation therapy. He points out that none of the major studies supporting the CHA₂DS₂-VASc guidelines have reported the accompanying cerebral microbleed risk. He also calls our attention to the reports from many centers that long-term stroke risk following catheter ablation is very low. Ablation may reduce the total arrhythmia burden or convert recurrences to more organized rhythms, such as an atrial tachycardia, with a lower stroke risk.

This effect of A-Fib ablation isn’t recognized in the latest guidelines.

Also, these new guidelines call for many more people to be on anticoagulant therapy, particularly women. Dr. Day does not go so far as to say the new guidelines are in error (as I do), but he does ask,” What about the 35 year old woman with borderline hypertension and only one A-Fib recurrence each year? Should she now take anticoagulants for the rest of her life even if she has had a successful ablation?”

(See more research contradicting the 2014 Guides: A study using the Taiwan Research Database of 186,570 A-Fib patients discounted female gender and only looked at females with a CHA2DS2-VASc score of 2 (one additional risk factor besides being female).^1,2,3

Warning: The Risks of Life-long Anticoagulation Therapy

Dr. Day concludes, “Somehow I think we have lost sight of the total picture with the new A-Fib management guidelines. In my mind, I am not convinced that the long-term stroke risk of a CHA₂DS₂-VASc score of 1 or 2 (depending on which risk factors are present) justifies all of the risks of life-long anticoagulation therapy, particularly if the patient has had a successful ablation procedure.”⁴ Dr. John Mandrola echoes Dr. Day, “And if there is no A-Fib, there is no benefit from anticoagulation.”⁵ Anticoagulants are not like taking vitamins, “Oral anticoagulants are high-risk medications.”⁶ Bleeding events are common complications of anticoagulants.

(Added February 19, 2018: A Swedish retrospective registry study found that anticoagulant treatment was associated with a 29% reduced risk of dementia, that the risk of dementia is higher in A-Fib patients without oral anticoagulation treatment. (There was no difference between warfarin and the new anticoagulants.) One of the authors, Dr. Leif Friberg, asked if high risk patients without A-Fib “could…benefit from anticoagulant treatment?” Dr. Friberg didn’t speculate on how or why anticoagulants decreased the risk of dementia.

This study obviously contradicts much of the research in this article and may change current treatment practices.)⁷

Editorial comments:

“But CHA₂D₂-VASc are just guidelines, aren’t they? Doctors don’t have to follow them, do they?”

Unfortunately once guidelines like these become official, they in effect become the law of the land. If a doctor doesn’t follow them, and a patient has a stroke, the doctor is almost guaranteed a losing malpractice law suit. The first thing a trial lawyer will point out to an arbitrator or jury is that the doctor didn’t follow current guidelines.

This puts doctors in a very difficult position. Even though Dr. Day knows all too well and agonizes over the fact that his anticoagulant therapy probably caused his patient Bob’s dementia, he can’t change the guidelines.

See also my articles: Women in A-Fib Not at Greater Risk of Stroke! and Israeli Study-Being Female Not a Risk Factor for Stroke.)

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Last updated: Saturday, January 1, 2022