A prospective study on drug utilization, cost impact and gastric bleeding associated with anticoagulant therapy at cardiology department in a tertiary care hospital

Anticoagulants are the class of drugs that are used to prevent thrombus extension and embolic complications by reducing the rate of fibrin formation. They do not dissolve already formed clot but prevent recurrences. Method: 200 patients from the cardiology inpatient department who were suffering from Cardiovascular Diseases were included in this prospective, uni-centric, observational study conducted in tertiary care hospital, Bangalore. cardiovascular disease was observed to be highest in patients with the age group of 58-67 years. We observed that 122 patients were treated with anticoagulants + antiplatelets, 75 were treated with anticoagulants only. The most common co-morbid conditions observed by us were HTN. Out of 200 prescriptions encountered 198 prescriptions have rational use of anticoagulants and only 2 were irrational. The polypharmacy was observed to be practiced in the management of CVD which increases the economic burden of the patients.