A: Warfarin is a blood thinner that reduces the chance of blood forming clots as a result of AF but it has a number of problems associated with it. Warfarin requires frequent blood tests to ensure the dose is correct, it interacts with many other drugs and patients on warfarin need to be careful about eating large amounts of green vegetables, alcohol and certain other foods.
The new drugs, or novel oral anticoagulants (NOACs) don't need blood tests, have very few drug and food interactions and most importantly cause much fewer bleeding episodes in the brain than warfarin does. The UK is lagging behind the rest of the world in taking up these new drugs (largely because of cost, but also conservatism), but things are slowly changing and my patients absolutely love these new alternatives.
Dr Oliver Segal
Mr John Yap
Dr Michael Mullen
