Ján Staško, Peter Chudý, Juraj Sokol, Lenka Lisá, Zuzana Jedináková, Peter Kubisz
One of the principle drawbacks of commonly used anticoagulants (vitamin K antagonists, unfractioned heparin) seems to be a necessity of monitoring. Recently the new oral anticoagulants (direct thrombin inhibitors and direct factor Xa inhibitors) with predictable pharmacological profile and without need of routine coagulation monitoring in standard dose regimen were introduced into clinical practice. However, the laboratory monitoring can be a matter of debate also during therapy with the new oral anticoagulants in certain circumstances such as bleeding, drug overdosage, therapy failure, a necessity of urgent surgery intervention or need to estimate the patient´s compliance. The article reviews the current possibilities of laboratory monitoring in anticoagulation treatment focusing on the new oral anticoagulants.