Anticoagulation in patients with atrial fibrillation and coronary artery disease

The management of antithrombotic therapy in patients with atrial fibrillation undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention for coronary artery disease remains a challenge in clinical practice. This group of patients has indications for both oral anticoagulation and antiplatelet therapy. Such combination will require careful considerations of both thromboembolic and bleeding risks. There have been several big trials looking at the rationale of treating those patients with an oral anticoagulant in combination with one (dual-therapy strategy) or two antiplatelet agents (triple-therapy strategy).