About the Authors

Ajay K. Kakkar

akkakkar@tri-london.ac.uk

Affiliations Thrombosis Research Institute, London, United Kingdom, University College London, London, United Kingdom

Iris Mueller

Affiliation Thrombosis Research Institute, London, United Kingdom

Jean-Pierre Bassand

Affiliation Department of Cardiology, University Hospital Jean-Minjoz, Besançon, France

David A. Fitzmaurice

Affiliation Primary Care Clinical Sciences, The University of Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom

Samuel Z. Goldhaber

Affiliation Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, and Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America

Shinya Goto

Affiliation Department of Medicine, Tokai University, Kanagawa, Japan

Sylvia Haas

Affiliation Department of Medicine, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany

Werner Hacke

Affiliation Department of Neurology, University Hospital of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany

Gregory Y. H. Lip

Affiliation University of Birmingham Centre for Cardiovascular Sciences, City Hospital, Birmingham, United Kingdom

Lorenzo G. Mantovani

Affiliation Dipartimento di Medicina Clinica e Chirurgia, Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, Napoli, Italy

Alexander G. G. Turpie

Affiliation Department of Medicine, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

Martin van Eickels

Affiliation Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals, Berlin, Germany

Frank Misselwitz

Affiliation Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals, Berlin, Germany

Sophie Rushton-Smith

Affiliation Thrombosis Research Institute, London, United Kingdom

Gloria Kayani

Affiliation Thrombosis Research Institute, London, United Kingdom

Peter Wilkinson

Affiliation Wilkinson Associates, Radnage, Bucks, United Kingdom

Freek W. A. Verheugt

Affiliation Department of Cardiology, Onze Lieve Vrouwe Gasthuis (OLVG), Amsterdam, The Netherlands

for the GARFIELD Registry Investigators

Membership of the GARFIELD Registry is provided in Text S1.

Competing Interests

Dr. Kakkar’s research was supported by Bayer HealthCare, sanofi-aventis, Boehringer Ingelheim (BI), Pfizer, Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS), and Eisai. Dr. Kakkar provided consultancy for Bayer HealthCare, sanofi-aventis, BI, Pfizer, BMS, Eisai, Aryx Therapeutics, and Canyon. Dr. Kakkar received honoraria from Bayer HealthCare, sanofi-aventis, BI, Pfizer, BMS, Eisai, and GSK (GSK). Dr. Kakkar has been a Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) member for Bayer HealthCare, sanofi-aventis, BI, Pfizer, BMS, and Eisai. Dr. Bassand received consultancy fees or honoraria from Bayer, Eli Lilly, Iroko, Astra Zeneca, and GSK. Dr. Fitzmaurice received honoraria from Bayer, BI, and sanofi-aventis. Dr. Goldhaber received research grants from BI, BMS, Eisai, EKOS, Johnson & Johnson, and sanofi-aventis, and provided consultancy (all <$10 K) for BI, BMS, Daiichi Sankyo, Eisai, EKOS, Medscape, Merck, Portola, and sanofi-aventis. Dr. Goto received research grants from sanofi-aventis, Eisai, BI, Otsuka, and Daiichi-Sankyo; and consultancy fees and honoraria from Eisai, sanofi-aventis, Otsuka, Bayer, Novartis, AstraZeneca, Asteras, Pfizer, Medtronic-Japan, Tanabe-Mitsubishi, Takeda, Daiichi-Sankyo, Mochida, and MSD. Dr. Haas has been a SAB member for Bayer, sanofi-aventis, BMS, and CSL-Behring; and received honoraria from Bayer, sanofi-aventis, BI, BMS, and Daiichi-Sankyo. Dr. Hacke received significant reimbursement from Bayer for work on the ROCKET-AF Executive Committee and for being a speaker at several industry-sponsored symposia; and reimbursement from BI for participation in Advisory Boards and industry-sponsored symposia. Dr. Lip has been a consultant for Bayer, Astellas, Merck, AstraZeneca, sanofi, BMS/Pfizer, Biotronik, Portola, and BI; and on the Speakers’ bureau for Bayer, BMS/Pfizer, Boehringer, and sanofi-aventis. Dr. Mantovani received research funding from Bayer Research, Pfizer, and BMS (in the field of AF) and Bayer, Boehringer-Ingelheim (outside AF); speaker’s fees from BMS, Boehringer-Ingelheim (In AF), Pfizer (outside AF); and Advisory Board fees from Bayer, Daiichi Sankyo (in AF) and Pfizer (outside AF). Dr. Turpie provided consultancy for Bayer, J & J, Astellas, Merck, sanofi-aventis, Takeda, and Portola; and on Speakers’ Bureaus for Bayer, BMS/Pfizer, Boehringer-Ingelheim, J & J, GSK, and sanofi-aventis. Dr. van Eickels is employed by Bayer Healthcare Pharmaceuticals, Berlin, Germany. Dr. Misselwitz is employed by Bayer Healthcare Pharmaceuticals, Berlin, Germany and owns a significant number of Bayer AG stocks. Dr. Rushton-Smith has provided consultancy for the European Society of Cardiology, Genzyme, Medtronic, sanofi-aventis, Servier and The Medicines Company. Dr. Verheugt has received educational and research grants from Bayer AG, Roche, Eli Lilly, and BI; and consultancy honoraria from Daiichi- Sankyo, Eli Lilly, Merck, The Medicines Company, and Bayer AG. The affiliations to the funding organization (Bayer AG) and the declarations provided in the competing interests form do not alter the authors' adherence to all the PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: AKK IM JPB DF SZG SG SH WH GYHL LM FWAV ME FM AGGT. Performed the experiments: JPB DF SZG SG WH GYHL FWAV AGGT. Analyzed the data: PW. Wrote the paper: SRS. Had full access to all of the data in the study and takes responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis: GK.