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Abstract Patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) and acute coronary syndrome (ACS) are at high risk of stroke, recurrent coronary ischemic events, and cardiovascular mortality. The composition of antithrombotic therapy including an oral anticoagulant and antiplatelet drug(s) should be tailored according to the individual patient’s risk profile, to reduce the bleeding risk and maintain antithrombotic effect. There is no single antithrombotic treatment regimen that would fit to all patients with AF and ACS. However, available data promote the use of full‐dose direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) (dabigatran 150 mg twice daily or apixaban 5 mg twice daily) or rivaroxaban 15 mg once daily in patients with AF and ACS or percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). For many patients, a DOAC plus P2Y12 inhibitor early after ACS and/or PCI would be optimal, whereas a longer course of triple therapy should be used in patients at high thrombotic risk.

Background: BALKAN-AF evaluated patterns of atrial fibrillation (AF) management in real-world clinical practice in the Balkans. The objectives were: to assess the proportion of patients with first-diagnosed AF in the BALKAN-AF cohort and to compare the management of patients with newly-diagnosed AF and those with previously known AF in clinical practice. Methods: Consecutive patients from 7 Balkan countries were enrolled prospectively to the snapshot BALKAN-AF survey. Results: Of 2712 enrolled patients, 2677 (98.7%) with complete data were included. 631 (23.6%) patients had newly-diagnosed AF and 2046 (76.4%) patients had known AF. Patients with newly-diagnosed AF were more likely to be hospitalized for AF and to receive single antiplatelet therapy (SAPT) alone and less likely to receive OACs than those with known AF (all p