Background: Two direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs), apixaban and rivaroxaban, have been studied in reduced doses for extended-phase treatment of venous thromboembolism (VTE). However, scant evidence exists surrounding clinician practice and decision-making regarding dose reduction for extended-phase treatment of VTE.
Aims: Report clinician practice and characteristics surrounding dose-reduction of DOACs for extended-phase VTE treatment.
Methods: We conducted a 16-question REDCap survey between 7/14/2021 and 9/13/2021 among ISTH 2021 Congress attendees, and online via Twitter™. We performed logistic regression to explore factors associated with dose-reduction. Considering dosing behaviors, we used k-means clustering and minimized the silhouette score while maintaining sufficient cluster size. We assessed for clustering of clinicians by characteristics around dose reduction decision-making. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the clusters.
Results: 171 clinicians responded, of whom most were attending academic physicians that practiced in North America (Table 1). Clinicians who treated larger volumes of patients had higher odds of electing dose-reduction. We identified 5 clusters that showed distinct patterns of behavior regarding dose-reduction. Cluster 1) Rarely dose reduces and is the cluster most likely to prescribe rivaroxaban; Cluster 2) Dose reduces with considerable frequency, does not consider age when dose-reducing, is least likely to temporarily re-escalate dosing, and prescribes apixaban and rivaroxaban equally; Cluster 3) Dose reduces < 50% of the time, but temporarily re-escalates dosing during increased VTE risk; Cluster 4) Dose reduces with considerable frequency, temporarily re-escalates dosing during increased VTE risk, and is most likely to prescribe apixaban; Cluster 5) Dose reduces with highest frequency, and takes the fewest risk factors into consideration to not dose reduce (Figure 1).
Conclusion(s): Most clinicians elect to dose-reduce DOACs for extended-phase anticoagulation. The likelihood of a clinician to dose-reduce increased with volume of patients treated. Clinician prescribing patterns clustered around VTE risk factors as well as re-escalation during high-risk periods.
Table: Survey participant Characteristics
Table: Survey participant Characteristics
Figure: Heat Map of Clinician’s Prescribing Patterns
Figure Legend: Dosing behaviors of entire cohort and 5 clusters, represented as percentage of respondents that responded affirmatively to each variable. Acronyms include: Direct Oral Anticoagulant -DOAC-, Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group -ECOG-, venous thromboembolism -VTE-, body mass index -BMI-, deep venous thrombosis -DVT-
To cite this abstract in AMA style:
Woller S, Groat D, Rosovsky R, Sanfilippo K, Baumann Kreuziger L, Gaddh M, Eyster E, Martin K. Physician practice behaviors surrounding dose-reduction of direct oral anticoagulants for the extended phase treatment of venous thromboembolism [abstract]. https://abstracts.isth.org/abstract/physician-practice-behaviors-surrounding-dose-reduction-of-direct-oral-anticoagulants-for-the-extended-phase-treatment-of-venous-thromboembolism/. Accessed September 27, 2023.« Back to ISTH 2022 Congress
ISTH Congress Abstracts - https://abstracts.isth.org/abstract/physician-practice-behaviors-surrounding-dose-reduction-of-direct-oral-anticoagulants-for-the-extended-phase-treatment-of-venous-thromboembolism/