anticoagulant
Meaning of anticoagulant: An anticoagulant reduces the blood's tendency to clot, used to prevent or treat dangerous clots in conditions such as atrial fibrillation and deep vein thrombosis.
Definition of anticoagulant
An anticoagulant is a medication that reduces the blood's ability to form clots by interfering with one or more steps in the clotting process. Anticoagulants act on clotting factors, proteins in the blood that normally work together in sequence to form a clot, rather than acting directly on platelets.
Anticoagulants are prescribed to prevent clots from forming in people at increased risk, such as those with an irregular heart rhythm called atrial fibrillation, and to treat an existing clot, such as a deep vein thrombosis or a clot that has traveled to the lungs.
Because anticoagulants work by reducing clotting throughout the body rather than only at the intended site, they carry a corresponding increase in bleeding risk, and the specific anticoagulant, dose, and monitoring approach used depend on the reason for treatment and individual patient factors.
Also known as
Used in a sentence
The patient was started on an anticoagulant following the diagnosis of deep vein thrombosis.
Good to know
An anticoagulant acts on clotting factors in the blood, distinguishing it from an antiplatelet medication, which instead reduces the clumping of platelets, and the two categories are sometimes used together or confused with one another.
Word origin
Where “anticoagulant” comes from
Formed from Greek anti-, meaning against, and Latin coagulare, meaning to curdle or clot.