GI Bleed? Don't Blame the Anticoagulant!

Gastrointestinal bleeding in people taking oral anticoagulants might be a harbinger of colorectal cancer, according to a Danish registry study.

Gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) on oral anticoagulants (OAC) is not uncommon. In an industry-supported study, researchers used Danish registry data on 125,418 patients with AF and taking OACs to determine the association between lower GI bleeding (LGIB) in such patients and later diagnoses of colorectal cancer.

During a maximum of 3 years of follow-up, 2576 hospital admissions or referrals for LGIB were identified, and 140 of these patients were diagnosed with colorectal cancer within a year afterwards. The risk ratios for colorectal cancer among patients with LGIB compared with patients without LGIB were 24.2 among patients under age 65 and 12.3 among those over 85. The absolute 1-year risks for colo…

Reviewing Author

Fatima Rodriguez, MD, MPH, FACC, FAHA

Disclosures

Consultant/Advisory BoardNovoNordisk; HealthPals; Novartis; Amgen

EquityHealthPals; Carta

Grant/Research SupportNational Institutes of Health/National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute; American Heart Association–Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

Editorial BoardsCardiology and Therapy