Venous Thromboembolism in Renally Impaired Patients and Direct Oral Anticoagulants

Overview

In renally impaired patients with acute venous thromboembolism (VTE), standard-of-care (SOC) anticoagulation, i.e. heparins-vitamin K antagonists (VKA), at therapeutic dosage is associated with an increased risk of thromboembolic and bleeding complications compared to patients with normal renal function. Direct oral anticoagulants (DOAs) have been shown to be at least as effective and safe as SOC in VTE treatment. But in the clinical trials, moderate renally impaired patients were poorly represented and patients with severe renal insufficiency not at all. So no dose reduction was considered. Surprisingly, DOAs have been approved for VTE treatment in moderate and severe renally impaired patients. There is need to evaluate a reduced dose of DOAs for VTE treatment in patients with moderate and severe renal insufficiency. We plan to evaluate reduced doses of 2 DOAs (apixaban, rivaroxaban) compared to SOC in VTE patients with moderate or severe renal insufficiency in terms of net clinical benefit (recurrent VTE and major bleeding) at 3 months.

In renally impaired patients with acute venous thromboembolism (VTE), standard-of-care (SOC) anticoagulation, i.e. heparins-vitamin K antagonists (VKA), at therapeutic dosage is associated with an increased risk of thromboembolic and bleeding complications compared to patients with normal renal function. These patients represent more than 20% of the VTE population in clinical practice. Direct oral anticoagulants (DOAs) have been shown to be at least as effective and safe as SOC in VTE treatment. But in the clinical trials, moderate renally impaired patients were poorly represented (\<10%) and patients with severe renal insufficiency not at all. So no dose reduction was considered. The new DOAs have also been developed for stroke prevention in atrial fibrillation (SPAF). Patients including in AF trials are generally older and more prone to present renal impairment (\>20%) than in VTE trials. So a reduced dose of DOAs was evaluated and shown to be at least as effective as, and safer than VKA in the subgroup of patients with moderate renal insufficiency (creatinine clearance between 30 to 50 ml/min). Surprisingly, DOAs have been approved for VTE treatment and SPAF in moderate and severe renally impaired patients (creatinine clearance between 15 to 30 mL/min). Moreover, patients have to receive a reduced dose of DOAs for SPAF but a full dose of DOAs for VTE that could be associated with an increased bleeding risk, as suggested by some subgroup analyses. So, there, there is need to evaluate a reduced dose of DOAs for VTE treatment in patients with moderate and severe renal insufficiency (creatinine clearance between 15 to 50 mL/min). Apixaban and rivaroxaban appear to be the best candidates since: * both are approved in France in VTE patients * they have mixed pathway of elimination (hepatic and renal) * they have several other pharmacological similarities and they respective clinical trials have shown similar efficacy and safety profiles when compared with SOC for VTE treatment. * they do not need to be preceded by initial parenteral heparins on the contrary to dabigatran and edoxaban. This allows evaluating the impact of DOAs in renally impaired patients independently from the initial heparins effect * a reduced dose regimen is available and approved in AF * the evaluation of 2 DAOs allows evaluating the concept of this new class in renally impaired VTE patients independently from the pharmaceutical companies. Finally we plan to evaluate reduced doses of 2 DOAs (apixaban, rivaroxaban) compared to SOC in VTE patients with moderate or severe renal insufficiency in terms of net clinical benefit (recurrent VTE and major bleeding) at 3 months.