Zhang W, et al. - Researchers investigated the impact of the type, duration, and frequency of atrial fibrillation (AF) on the risks of stroke/systemic embolic events (SEE) and bleeding events in patients receiving oral anticoagulation therapy (OAT). They compared these events between patients on OAT having paroxysmal AF vs persistent or permanent AF. They analyzed 6 phase III randomized controlled trials (RCTs) assessing the efficacy and safety of OAT in AF patients. These studies were identified from Cochrane Library, PubMed/MEDLINE, and EMBASE databases. A total of 70,447 AF patients were included, of those, paroxysmal AF was present in 15,028 (21.3%) patients and 55,419 (78.7%) had persistent or permanent AF. Findings revealed a lower risk of stroke, systemic embolism and mortality but similar risk of major hemorrhage in those with paroxysmal AF vs persistent or permanent AF patients, among patients with moderate-to-high risk of stroke receiving anticoagulation.