In people who have a heart condition which increases their risk of blood clots, the drug Xarelto, which received the FDA approval last month, is apparently as effective – if not more - in preventing heart strokes as the standard warfarin drug!

After the FDA’s July approval to the drug for preventing life-threatening blood clots in people having hip and knee replacement surgery, a panel of experts will soon consider whether the drug’s use should also be approved as a once-daily treatment for atrial fibrillation – a condition that causes the heart to pump blood in an irregular, uncoordinated way.

Since atrial fibrillation can allow blood to pool and clot in its upper chambers – and there is possibility of the clots traveling to the brain and causing a stroke -, the blood-thinning drug warfarin is currently the standard prescription for patients with atrial fibrillation.

According to the findings of a new study, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, a test of Xarelto against warfarin – also sold under the brand names Coumadin and Jantoven - in over 14,000 patients with atrial fibrillation showed that Xarelto is “at least as good as warfarin”, as lead researcher and Duke University cardiologist Manesh Patel put it!

Noting that Xarelto is “a reasonable alternative to warfarin,” Patel elaborated that since Xarelto – unlike warfarin - does not require patients to make frequent trips to the doctor, “from a patient's perspective, it represents a potential alternative to the current standard”!