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Background: Direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) have replaced vitamin K antagonists as the standard of care for stroke prevention in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF). However, DOAC prescriptions at dosages that do not adhere to labeling are common in daily practice. This analysis from the observational Global Edoxaban Treatment in routiNe clinical prActice (ETNA)-AF program focuses on edoxaban-treated patients from South Korea and Taiwan to identify patient baseline characteristics that may be associated with non-recommended dosing. Methods: We report baseline data from ETNA-AF, including patient demographics, clinical characteristics, and bleeding/stroke history of patients receiving recommended or non-recommended edoxaban dosing. Results: A total of 2677 patients were enrolled. Among 1543 patients who did not meet dose-reduction criteria, 1033 (66.9%) were prescribed the recommended 60-mg dose, and 510 (33.1%) were prescribed the non-recommended 30-mg dose. Among 1134 patients meeting ≥1 of the dose-reduction criteria, 863 (76.1%) were prescribed the recommended 30-mg dose; 271 (23.9%) were prescribed the nonrecommended 60-mg dose. Compared with the recommended 60-mg group, the nonrecommended 30-mg group had a higher proportion of patients aged ≥75 years, higher stroke and bleeding risks, and a history of major bleeding. The non-recommended 60-mg group had a lower proportion of patients aged ≥75 years, a higher history of stroke, and lower history of bleeding compared with the recommended 30-mg group. Conclusion: The baseline data from ETNA-AF indicate that physicians take patient clinical characteristics (e.g., bleeding risks) into consideration when deviating from the dosing recommendation per label. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the position of the Chinese Communist Party on federalism and ethnic self-government from 1922 to the present in historical and comparative perspectives. Its initial blueprint of a Federal Republic of China became a path not taken; however, the road to establishing a unitary multiethnic state for the future of China was neither inevitable nor accidental. This argument is developed and illustrated through comparing the pre-1949 and post-1949 periods, paying particular attention to the period of 1945-1954. The founding of a unitary state with regional autonomy while rejecting the Soviet ethnofederalism reveals Mao Zedong's own autonomy vis-à-vis Stalin. The Chinese state since 1997 has carried out a kind of federalist experiment to a lesser extent, which can be perceived as a partial resurrection of an old Party line abandoned six decades ago. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]