Clinical Trial Summary
Atrial fibrillation is the most frequent cardiac rhythm disorder and its prognosis is
essentially marked by the risk of embolic events. Its treatment is based on long-term oral
anticoagulant therapy according to the risk of embolic events assessed by risk scores such as
the CHA2DS2-Vasc score, but this prescription is associated with a risk of hemorrhagic events
that must be taken into consideration when deciding on the treatment for a given patient.
There are two categories of validated oral anticoagulant treatments for the prevention of
embolic events in atrial fibrillation: antivitamin K agents, which have long been the
reference treatment but are restrictive and difficult to use because of a narrow therapeutic
window, and direct oral anticoagulants, which are now the first-line treatment but have not
been evaluated in phase II and III studies in patients with severe renal failure. End-stage
renal disease (clearance <15 mL/min/1.73m2), particularly at the dialysis stage, is a risk
factor for cardiovascular disease in its own right, and a significant number of patients
develop atrial fibrillation. Given the co-morbidities associated with renal failure, in
particular hypertension, patients with renal failure undergoing dialysis and suffering from
atrial fibrillation are generally at a higher risk of embolism than patients without renal
failure, but also at a higher risk of bleeding. Thus, if the indication for prescribing oral
anticoagulant therapy is clear in this population, the associated bleeding complications are
also more frequent and more serious in these patients who have regular vascular accesses in
the context of hemodialysis. There is thus a real need for reliable therapeutic alternatives
with a better benefit/risk ratio than antivitamins K.
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Chronic dialysis patients are a special population because the constraints linked to their
disease (3 dialyses per week) make them a captive population that nephrologists know
perfectly well. If the identification of the subjects to be included does not pose any
problem, it is more their adherence to the project which is likely to be more difficult
because it implies additional constraints in these patients with potentially many
comorbidities.
This proof-of-concept study will identify the dose of rivaroxaban with the best
pharmacokinetic/ pharmacodynamic profile in chronic hemodialysis patients. It will then be
possible to envisage a larger study of the type of a national Hospital Clinical Research
Program (PHRC) in order to evaluate the dose of rivaroxaban chosen in hemodialysis patients
with atrial fibrillation with an indication for oral anticoagulation on the basis of
morbidity-mortality criteria in comparison with treatment with antivitamins K that is well
conducted.