Preface

Two types of anticoagulant drugs, heparin and vitamin K antagonists, were widely used during the last century and were among the most frequently prescribed drugs in everyday clinical practice. In the past decades, several new direct oral anticoagulants were developed that changed the anticoagulant therapy landscape considerably. On the one hand, this book provides an extensive overview of all the known anticoagulants, including exotic anticoagu‐ lants found in different animal species that can be used for studying different aspects of the haemostatic system or as a starting point for new drug development. On the other hand, it is also a valuable tool for clinicians providing a description of the mode of action and manage‐ ment of therapy for anticoagulant drugs used in everyday clinical practice in different clini‐ cal settings, including direct oral anticoagulants dabigatran, rivaroxaban, apixaban and edoxaban. Despite the wide range of anticoagulant drugs available today, the ideal anticoa‐ gulant drug that would effectively prevent thrombotic events, but would not expose pa‐ tients to increased risk of bleeding, is yet to be discovered.

#### **Mojca Božič Mijovski**

Department of Vascular Diseases University Medical Centre Ljubljana, Slovenia Slovenia

**Chapter 1**

Provisional chapter

**An Overview of the Anticoagulant Drugs Used in**

DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.76206

Anticoagulant drugs directly or indirectly influence coagulation factors preventing fibrin formation thus preventing blot clotting. They are classified into two groups according to the mode of application, namely parenteral and oral drugs. Among the latter, vitamin K antagonists (most often warfarin) were the only available oral drugs and were widely used for almost a century. In the recent years, new oral anticoagulant drugs became available that directly target either factor IIa or Xa. This chapter provides an overview of both parenteral and oral anticoagulant drugs used in clinical practice with description of

Anticoagulant drugs directly or indirectly influence coagulation factors and thus inhibit the initiation and progress of coagulation and fibrin-clot formation. They are classified into two groups according to the mode of application, namely parenteral and oral drugs. Among the latter, vitamin K antagonists (most often warfarin) were the only available oral anticoagulants and were widely used for almost a century. In recent years, new oral anticoagulant drugs

This chapter provides an overview of both parenteral and oral anticoagulant drugs used in clinical practice with a description of the mode of action and management of therapy in

> © 2016 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and eproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

© 2018 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use,

distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

the mode of action and management of therapy in different clinical settings.

Keywords: anticoagulant drugs, indications, therapy

became available that directly target either factor IIa or Xa [1].

An Overview of the Anticoagulant Drugs Used in

**Routine Clinical Practice**

Routine Clinical Practice

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.76206

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

Nina Vene and Alenka Mavri

Nina Vene and Alenka Mavri

Abstract

1. Introduction

different clinical settings.

#### **An Overview of the Anticoagulant Drugs Used in Routine Clinical Practice** An Overview of the Anticoagulant Drugs Used in Routine Clinical Practice

DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.76206

Nina Vene and Alenka Mavri Nina Vene and Alenka Mavri

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.76206

#### Abstract

Anticoagulant drugs directly or indirectly influence coagulation factors preventing fibrin formation thus preventing blot clotting. They are classified into two groups according to the mode of application, namely parenteral and oral drugs. Among the latter, vitamin K antagonists (most often warfarin) were the only available oral drugs and were widely used for almost a century. In the recent years, new oral anticoagulant drugs became available that directly target either factor IIa or Xa. This chapter provides an overview of both parenteral and oral anticoagulant drugs used in clinical practice with description of the mode of action and management of therapy in different clinical settings.

Keywords: anticoagulant drugs, indications, therapy
