Adherence and Coagulation Assays in Dabigatran-treated Patients With Atrial Fibrillation

In patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation treated with dabigatran etexilate, the level of adherence will be measured using a questionnaire, the Danish National Prescription Registry and pillcount and will be related to plasma levels of dabigatran measured by liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) and coagulation assays. The aim of the study is to measure the level of adherence and evaluate the usefulness of different coagulation assays to measure adherence in these patients. Furthermore, the aim is to determine the correlation between the anticoagulant effect of dabigatran using different coagulation assays and plasma levels of dabigatran. Most studies so far have been performed in vitro with plasma samples spiked with dabigatran. In this study the present knowledge from results of coagulation assays in dabigatran spiked plasma samples will be compared to the results of coagulation assays using blood samples from real-life patients.