PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Shehab, Abdulla AU - Elnour, Asim A. AU - Sadik, Adel AU - Mandil, Mahmoud Abu AU - AlShamsi, Ali AU - Suwaidi, Aesha Al AU - Bhagavathula, AkshayaSrikanth AU - Erkekoglu, Pinar AU - Hamad, Farah AU - Nuaimi, Saif K. Al TI - Clinical utility of dabigatran in United Arab Emirates AID - 10.15537/smj.2015.11.12154 DP - 2015 Nov 01 TA - Saudi Medical Journal PG - 1290--1298 VI - 36 IP - 11 4099 - http://smj.org.sa/content/36/11/1290.short 4100 - http://smj.org.sa/content/36/11/1290.full SO - Saudi Med J2015 Nov 01; 36 AB - Objectives: To provide early data regarding clinical utility of dabigatran in Al-Ain, United Arab Emirates (UAE).Methods: This was an ethics approved retrospective cross sectional study. We retrieved a total of 76 patients who were using dabigatran from September to December 2014 in the Cardiology Clinic at Al-Ain Hospital, Al-Ain, UAE. The primary analysis was designed to test the frequency of bleeding events (rate) with dabigatran 75, 110, and 150 mg.Results: The mean age ± standard deviation of cohort was 67.9 ± 1.5 years (range; 29-98 years), composed of males (52.6%) with mean age of 66.3 ± 1.7 years, and females (47.4%) with mean age of 69.6 ± 1.1 years. The highest age group was those between 61-80 years (60.5%). Most comprised the age strata of ≤75 years (73.7%). The main indication for dabigatran use was atrial fibrillation. The rate of bleeding with dabigatran was 18/76 (23.7%), and melena was the leading cause of bleeding 8/76 (10.7%). The hospitalization rate was 67.1%, dabigatran withdrawal rate was 0.01%, and mortality rate was 6.5%. The cohort had exhibited incidences of minor bleeding with one fatal major bleeding, high co-morbidities, admission, and readmission, which was not directly linked to dabigatran. We did not identify any relation of death due to dabigatran.Conclusion: Dabigatran is a suitable alternative to warfarin obviating the need for repetitive international normalized ratio monitoring, however, it may need plasma drug monitoring.