Four non-vitamin K oral anticoagulants (NOACs) are now licensed and available in the UK, offering unprecedented choices in anticoagulant therapy for clinicians and patients. NOACs have many clear benefi ts over warfarin, the most striking being the reduction in intracranial haemorrhage. However, a number of uncertainties remain: their effi cacy in certain situations, utility of drug assays, signifi cance of drug interactions and management of bleeding. In the absence of any direct comparative trials, it is not clear that any of the NOACs is signifi cantly better than the others in any of the licensed indications. The differential activities, pharmacokinetics, metabolism, excretion and side effects of the agents should be considered when selecting the most appropriate anticoagulant. In this article, we discuss how, with careful selection for the relevant indication, NOACs can simplify therapy while improving outcomes. We aim to provide clinicians with the information needed to select the most suitable anticoagulant drug for an individual patient in a given situation.
KEYWORDS : Anticoagulant therapy , non-vitamin K oral anticoagulants , NOACs
IntroductionThe non-vitamin K oral anticoagulants (NOACs) 1 are now established in UK practice and new members continue to arrive. Within their licensed indications they have clear benefits over warfarin, but a number of uncertainties remain: efficacy in some specific situations, the utility of drug assays, significance of drug interactions and the management of bleeding all suffer from a paucity of data.This article provides an update on developments since the 2014 review in this journal.2 Our aim is to provide the information needed to select the most suitable anticoagulant drug for an individual patient in a given situation.
ABSTRACTDrug therapy in anticoagulation: which drug for which patient?
Properties of NOACsFour NOACs are now licensed and available in the UK: the direct factor Xa (FXa) inhibitors apixaban, edoxaban and rivaroxaban, and the direct thrombin inhibitor dabigatran. The key to best choice of agent lies in their individual pharmacokinetic profiles, metabolism and routes of excretion.