Management of Patients With Atrial Fibrillation Undergoing Coronary Artery Stenting

Treatment of patients suffering from atrial fibrillation pose problems when percutaneous coronary intervention with stent implantation (PCI-S) is performed. In the absence of solid evidence-based data, no definite recommendations for the management of this patient subset are currently given in the guidelines on percutaneous coronary intervention issued by the most prominent Cardiology Associations. The management of the antithrombotic treatment before invasive cardiac procedures is also incompletely defined. In this study we aim to determine in patients with atrial fibrillation undergoing PCI-S: 1. the contemporary antithrombotic management; 2. the relative safety and efficacy of the various post-PCI antithrombotic regimens; 3. the safety and efficacy of drug-eluting stents (DES), bare-metal stents (BMS), and bioactive stents (BAS); 4. the safety of various periprocedural antithrombotic strategies including glycoprotein IIb/IIIa inhibitors and bivalirudin; 5. safety and efficacy of radial vs femoral approach.