Vitamin K-antagonist drugs have seen considerable progress in understanding their mode of action, standardizing anticoagulant measurement, and improving safety with lower degrees of anticoagulation.
Provides a comprehensive review of the mode of action, clinical role, standardization, and safety improvements of oral anticoagulant drugs such as warfarin.
The vitamin K-antagonist drugs were reviewed in the Journal in the early 1970s.1 , 2 Since then, there has been considerable progress in research at both a basic and an applied level. The mode of action of coumarins has been clarified; their role in the management of thromboembolic disorders has been more clearly defined; a system has been developed to standardize the measurement of their anticoagulant effect3; and their safety has been improved for a number of indications without compromising efficacy, through the use of a lower degree of anticoagulation than formerly in North America.4 Warfarin (a 4-hydroxycoumarin compound) is the . . .
Oates et al. (1991) conducted a review in Thromboembolic disorders. Vitamin K-antagonist drugs (Warfarin) was evaluated. Vitamin K-antagonist drugs have seen considerable progress in understanding their mode of action, standardizing anticoagulant measurement, and improving safety with lower degrees of anticoagulation.