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The race is on to find an alternative to warfarin, which is currently the most effective agent for preventing stroke in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) but has a narrow therapeutic range that is difficult and inconvenient to sustain. A new agent, dabigatran, has recently demonstrated noninferiority to warfarin in >18,000 patients with documented AF and at least one other risk factor for stroke who participated in RE-LY, a manufacturer-funded international trial (JW Cardiol Sep 1 2009). In a prespecified substudy, the RE-LY investigators divided the trial centers into quartiles by the average time participants on warfarin had international normalized ratios (INRs) within therapeutic range, and compared rates of the primary and seconda…