[Direct oral anticoagulants in cardiology]

Antithrombotic drug therapy is a main cornerstone - sometimes a fairly uneven cornerstone - of today's clinical practice. Patients treated with antithrombotic drugs appear sometimes unawaited at those of our colleagues, who are not necessarily experts of this narrow field. Furthermore, new and newer molecules of antiplatelet and anticoagulant medicines have come into practice, frequently in combination. This dramatic development has been important to patients; pharmacological - and recently nonpharmacological - antithrombotic treatment has paved the way to improve current modalities in cardiology. Combining elements of the "old four" (heparin, coumadin, aspirin, clopidogrel) have been the basis of any improvement for a long time. Nowadays, there has been an involvement of new drugs, direct oral anticoagulants into practice. It is time now to catch up in using new anticoagulants, regardless of our current speciality in medicine. Orv. Hetil., 2016, 157(38), 1507-1510.