Design and rationale of dabigatran’s stroke prevention in real life in Turkey (D-SPIRIT)

OBJECTIVE
The D-SPIRIT registry is designed to investigate the safety and efficacy of dabigatran etexilate in patients with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation (NVAF) and to collect data on outcomes in clinical practice.

METHODS
The D-SPIRIT is a national, prospective, observational, post-marketing registry involving patients with NVAF who have been taking dabigatran etexilate therapy for stroke prevention for a minimum of 6 months prior to enrollment. The registry will collect and analyze data from routine care, enrolling up to 600 patients in 9 centers. Patients will be followed up for 2 years to evaluate effectiveness and safety. A sample size of 600 subjects is proposed based on the following assumptions; Two-sided significance level of 0.05 (1-sided significance level of 0.025), ischemic stroke incidence rate of 0.768%–1.111%, hemorrhagic stroke incidence rate of 0.109%–0.130%, transient ischemic attack incidence rate of 0.722%–0.623%, therapy discontinuation incidence rate of 40% at day 730, and duration of enrollment period of 12 months with non-uniformed enrollment rate. Ethics approval was given by Dokuz Eylül University Ethics Committee of Clinical Research (2014/54) and approved by the Turkish Ministry of Health.

CONCLUSION
Potential results of D-SPIRIT registry will add data from clinical practice to those from the RE-LY trial to expand knowledge of dabigatran etexilate treatment in patients with NVAF.