Anticoagulants are blood thinners that are used to lower the risk of a heart attack or thromboembolic stroke by minimising the formation of blood clots in arteries and veins. Blood clot formation is a haemostatic process that occurs when endothelial cells of blood vessels, whose function is to impede the deposition of platelets and to promote anticoagulation, become damaged. This causes exposure to the sub endothelium that results in von Willebrand factor and collagen proteins to adhere platelets to the sub endothelial layer of vessels, thus releasing chemicals and receptors that initiate the platelets to aggregate and form a platelet plug. Consequently, clotting factors such as fibrin join to, and toughen the platelet plug to form a blood
