Study strengths and limitations
TIA, ICH, ischemic stroke, cerebral infarction, hemorrhage transformation
EVENT, CEREBRAL INFARCTION, TIA, ISCHEMIC STROKE
The strengths of our study include the clinical practice based on a real-world study. It provides relatively objective and truthful evidence of an anticoagulation strategy focusing on AF-related AIS patients who underwent EVT.Our study had several limitations. Firstly, since this study was not a randomized controlled trial, the results were possibly influenced by some confounders. Although patients were continuously enrolled, there existed selection bias to therapy causes in actual clinical practice. For example, in clinical practice, clinicians tended to select patients with a low risk of ICH for early anticoagulation and delay the initiation time of anticoagulants according to the large volume of cerebral infarction and severe degree of hemorrhage transformation and such selection bias is indeed inevitable. Meanwhile, as reported by Arboix’s study [Secondly, given the relatively small sample size and the low event rate such as recurrent ischemic stroke or TIA, our study may have been underpowered and it’s more difficult to expand subgroup analysis. All in all, randomized controlled trials assessing the optimal time and types of anticoagulants after EVT for AIS patients with AF are warranted to guide clinical practice in the future.