Warfarin has a long history of benefit and has become the gold standard medication for the prevention of ischemic stroke in patients with atrial fibrillation. Nevertheless, it is far from perfect and there is no doubt that new drugs must be found to replace warfarin. The new oral anticoagulants that are on the market or awaiting approval or under research offer some benefits but not enough to replace warfarin until results of additional studies can show an adequate balance between effectiveness/safety and cost/benefit. There are several issues concerning the new oral anticoagulants. It is essential that the effect of any anticoagulant can be measured in plasma. But to date, there is no test to assess the effect or therapeutic range for the new oral anticoagulants. There is no antidote to neutralize the action of the new drugs in cases of bleeding or when acute surgical intervention is necessary. Dabigatran requires dose adjustment in patients with moderate renal impairment and is contraindicated in patients with severe renal failure. Rivaroxaban should be used with caution in patients with severe renal impairment. Apixaban excretion is also partly dependent on renal function, although the impact of renal insufficiency has not yet been determined. How anticoagulant bridging can be done before surgery has not yet been established. In conclusion, although thousands of patients have been treated in phase III studies, additional data are necessary before conclusions can be drawn on the potential for these new anticoagulant drugs to replace warfarin in patients with atrial fibrillation.

It is still on discussion how oral anticoagulant therapy must be interrupted. A progressive diminution of drug intake have been proposed in order to avoid a MreboundM of vitamin K-dependent procoagulant factors. At the present, it is well known that coumarin drugs affect not only the biologic activity of factors II, VII, IX and X but also Protein C (PC), an inhibitor of coagulation kinetics, and their cofactor Protein S. With the aim to determine the recovery level of PC in relation with the others vitamin K-dependent factors, the effect of suppression of anticoagulant therapy in patients under chronic treatment with acenocoumarin was studied.Quick time, functional factors II, VII, X (one stage methods), functional PC (Francis method) and immunological Factor II and Protein C (Laurell) were determined before and 36 hours after suspension of acenocoumarin administration.Results showed that: 1) Recovery levels of functional Protein C (increased from 28.55% ±2.57 to 72.64% ±5.9) were significantly higer than functional Factor II (22.09% ±2.34 to 30.73% ±8.64), Factor VII (22.55% ±2.01 to 40.73% ±4.85) and Factor X (23.27% ±2.66 to 39.18% ±3.19). Statistical analysis (Newmann-Keuls test) showed at least a p<0.01 between PC increase and factors II, VII or X increment.2) No significant differences were seen between immunological levels of Factor II before and after suspension of acenocoumarin.3) Levels of immunological PC in patients under anticoagulant therapy were higer than functional PC. After acenocoumarin suppression, not correlation was seen between immunological and functional Protein C recovery.It is concluded that acute suppression of acenocoumarin does not induce a thrombotic tendency because the recuperation of functional Protein C is more important than factors II, VII and X recovery.