Study Type
Interventional - Drug
ongoing
The objective of ARTESiA is to determine if treatment with apixaban, compared with aspirin, will reduce the risk of stroke and systemic embolism in patients with device-detected sub-clinical atrial fibrillation (SCAF) and additional risk factors for stroke.
Current guidelines recommend treatment with oral anticoagulant for stroke prevention in clinical atrial fibrillation (AF), but opinion leaders are uncertain of the role of oral anticoagulants for patients with SCAF.
A total of 4000 patients from approximately 240 sites in Canada, USA and Europe will be randomized double-blind to receive apixaban (5mg bid or 2.5 mg bid as per labelling) or aspirin (81mg OD).
The study will be event-driven and will continue until 248 patients have experienced a primary outcome event (stroke or systemic embolism). Estimated mean follow-up time is 3 years.
More about this study at: ARTESiA.
AHA 2023 presentation on ARTESiA Findings Rationale & Design - Download PDFStudy Design
Multicentre, prospective, parallel group, double-blind design
NO. of Countries
16
NO. of Sites
288
NO. of Participants
4012
Study Period
2015-2023
Sponsor
PHRI
Jeff Healey
Senior Scientist
Jeff Healey
Senior Scientist
Jeff Healey is a Cardiologist/Electrophysiologist and Professor of Medicine at McMaster University. He is Yusuf Chair and Director of Cardiology at McMaster University. He is the chair of the Canadian Stroke Prevention and Intervention Network (CSPIN) and past chair of the Canadian Atrial Fibrillation guidelines committee. He is also on the steering committee of the international AF Screen organization.
Healey was the lead author of the ASSERT trial that demonstrated the increased stroke risk associated with sub-clinical atrial fibrillation (New England Journal of Medicine 2012), and the principal investigator of the ARTESIA trial, which demonstrated that anticoagulation with apixaban reduced the risk of stroke in patients with sub-clinical atrial fibrillation New England Journal of Medicine 2023). He is also the principal investigator of the LAAOS-4 trial, evaluating the role of left atrial appendage occlusion on top of NOAC therapy for prevention of stroke in high-risk individuals with atrial fibrillation.
Stuart Connolly
Stuart Connolly
Stuart Connolly is a Professor of Medicine at McMaster University and a cardiac electrophysiologist at Hamilton Health Sciences. He became a faculty member at McMaster University in 1983 and was awarded a full professorship in 1994. He was also appointed as the inaugural holder of the Salim Yusuf Chair in Cardiology at McMaster University.
He has published more than 270 scientific articles in the field, and is currently a member of the editorial boards for a number of prominent cardiology journals, including Heart, the American Heart Journal and the Journal of Pacing and Electrophysiology. His main research interests are focused on the evaluation of treatments for heart rhythm disorders. His academic career has been largely devoted to the design and execution of controlled clinical trials in this area.
He holds a Masters degree from Fordham University, New York, and an MD from McGill University in Montreal. He received his specialist training in cardiology at the University of Toronto and at Stanford University.
Tara McCready
Program Director
Tara McCready
Program Director
Tara McCready, PhD, oversees a variety of collaborative programs at PHRI, and serves as Project Manager for PHRI research studies and registries.
She was recruited to PHRI as a Program Director for the Canadian Network and Centre for Trials Internationally (CANNeCTIN), a national network funded by the CIHR/CFI Clinical Research Initiative program to improve the prevention and treatment of cardiac and vascular diseases and diabetes.
Previously the Executive Director of the Canadian Maternal, Infant, Child and Youth Research Network, Tara holds a PhD in Biochemistry and a MBA in Technology Commercialization from the University of Alberta.
