Health encyclopaedia

Health encyclopaedia - Alphabetical Topic List

What is it used for? of Anticoagulant drugs

Anticoagulants are used when a person’s blood is clotting too quickly. These drugs reduce the rate at which the blood clots, so that it is taken down to the correct international normalised ratio (INR) – this is the correct time that the patient’s blood should take to clot. The normal range for INR is 0.9-1.2.

Reducing the blood’s ability to clot is a useful tool in preventing conditions such as strokes (sometimes caused when a blood clot travels to the brain) and heart attacks (when blood flow to the heart is blocked). Anticoagulants are given to people who have a history of these conditions or who are at risk of developing them.

Other high risk groups include people who have:

• deep vein thrombosis (DVT – a blood clot in the veins)
• a pulmonary embolism (a blood clot in the blood vessels around the lungs)  
• angina.

It also includes those who have recently undergone heart surgery, such as valve replacement.

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