The management of patients with acute ischemic stroke while on direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs): data from an Italian cohort and a proposed algorithm

Approximately 1–2% of patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation have an acute ischemic stroke (AIS) while on direct oral anticoagulant (DOAC) treatment every year. However, current evidence on stroke subtypes, pathophysiology and factors leading to the failure of DOAC preventive therapy in a “real world” setting is still scanty. This study aimed at investigating whether there is any relationship between DOAC plasma levels and the stroke occurrence, on the basis of the phenotypic classification and pathophysiology of the stroke, in a cohort of DOAC-treated patients admitted to our hospital for AIS over 1-year period. A total of 28 patients had DOAC plasma levels determined in emergency and were included in the study, nine patients receiving dabigatran, 11 rivaroxaban and 8 apixaban. The DOAC levels were low in 8/28 patients (28.6% of the sample), intermediate in 4 (14.3%) and high in 16 (57.1%). The most prevalent stroke subtype was the small vessel disease, according to the A-S-C-O phenotypic classification, in 53.6% of our sample. The most common clinical presentation was “minor stroke” in 71.4% of the cases. There was a significantly higher proportion of patients with high DOAC levels in the small vessel group, compared to the cardioembolic group without other phenotypes. The question arises as to the most suitable clinical management of AIS in these patients on DOACs. In the current absence of clear evidence, taking into account the DOAC levels (low/intermediate/high) and the underlying stroke pathophysiology, we present a flowchart of our proposed clinical management of ischemic stroke in patients while on DOAC.