Dabigatran is a reversible direct thrombin inhibitor approved for stroke prevention in patients with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation
It is being studied for various clinical indications and in some cases it offers an alternative to warfarin as the preferred orally administered anticoagulant since it does not require frequent blood tests for international normalized ratio (INR) monitoring while offering similar results in terms of efficacy.
Dabigatran is the first oral anticoagulant approved by the Food and Drug Administration for stroke prevention in non-valvular AF, more than 50 years after warfarin was first approved. The drug has overcome many of the major shortcomings of warfarin, and more importantly has been proven to be comparable to warfarin at a dose of 110 mg two times daily and superior to warfarin at a dose of 150 mg two times daily in preventing stroke in patients with non-valvular AF 1).
Warfarin was associated with a higher stroke and ICH risk than dabigatran 2).