Anticoagulant agent
Anticoagulant agent: A medication used to prevent the formation of blood clots and to maintain open blood vessels. Anticoagulants are called blood “thinners,” but they do not thin the blood, they only prevent or reduce clots, or thrombi. Anticoagulants have various uses. Some are used for the prophylaxis (prevention) or the treatment of thromboembolic disorders, such as stroke, heart attack (myocardial infarction) and deep venous thrombosis (DVT). Emboli are clots that break free, travel through the bloodstream, and lodge in a blood vessel, such as a Pulmonary embolism. The anticoagulant drugs used for these clinical purposes include:
Intravenous heparin — which acts by inactivating thrombin and several other clotting factors required for a clot to form; there are many newer agents, such as enoxaparin (brand name Lovenox), fondaparinux (brand name Arixtra), and others.
Oral anticoagulants such as warfarin and dicumarol — which act by inhibiting the liver’s production of vitamin K dependent factors crucial to clotting. Some newer oral agents, rivaroxaban (brand name Xarelto) and dabigatran (brand name Pradaxa)work by inhibiting factor Xa and by directly inhibiting thrombin, respectively.
Anticoagulant solutions are also used for the preservation of stored whole blood and blood fractions. These anticoagulants include heparin and acid citrate dextrose (commonly called ACD).
Anticoagulants are also used to keep laboratory blood specimens from clotting. These agents include not only heparin but also several agents that make calcium ions unavailable to the clotting process and so prevent the formation of clots; these agents include ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (commonly called EDTA), citrate, oxalate and fluoride.
Read Also:
- Anticonvulsant
Anticonvulsant: A medication used to control (prevent) seizures (convulsions) or stop an ongoing series of seizures. There are a large number of anticonvulsant drugs today including, but not limited to: phenobarbital, phenytoin (Dilantin), carbamazepine, ethosuximide (Zarontin), clonazepam (Klonopin), diazepam (Valium), lorazepam (Ativan), and midazolam (Versed). Anticonvulsant drugs taken during pregnancy put the baby at risk […]
- Anticonvulsant
Anticonvulsant: A medication used to control (prevent) seizures (convulsions) or stop an ongoing series of seizures. There are a large number of anticonvulsant drugs today including, but not limited to: phenobarbital, phenytoin (Dilantin), carbamazepine, ethosuximide (Zarontin), clonazepam (Klonopin), diazepam (Valium), lorazepam (Ativan), and midazolam (Versed). Anticonvulsant drugs taken during pregnancy put the baby at risk […]
- Antidepressant
Antidepressant: Anything, and especially a drug, used to prevent or treat depression. The available antidepressant drugs include the SSRIs or selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, MAOIs or monoamine oxidase inhibitors, tricyclic antidepressants, tetracyclic antidepressants, and others. Antidepressants should not be used unless the depression is severe and/or other treatments have failed. As with all drugs, the […]
- Antidepressant, MAOI
Antidepressant, MAOI: Monoamine oxidase inhibitor (MAOI), a potent class of medications used to treat depression. This group of antidepressants have many serious drug interactions, which may limit their use.
- Antidepressant, SSRI
Antidepressant, SSRI: A selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI), one of the commonly prescribed drugs for treating depression. SSRIs affect the chemicals that nerves in the brain use to send messages to one another. These chemical messengers, called neurotransmitters, are released by one nerve and taken up by other nerves. Neurotransmitters that are not taken up […]