Original Articles
Vol. 5 No. 2 (2026)
Availability of direct oral anticoagulants testing among Italian anticoagulation clinics: a rapid evolution of clinical practice
On behalf of the Italian Federation of Centers for the Diagnosis of Thrombotic Disorders and the Surveillance of the Antithrombotic Therapies
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All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.
Published: 26 June 2026
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Background: Direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) are largely prescribed, and the lack of need for a laboratory monitoring was the main reason for their large diffusion. However, a wide inter-individual variability has been described, and the need for blood levels measurement when a thrombotic or hemorrhagic event occurred has been suggested.
Materials and methods: In 2022, a survey was conducted among the Italian centers affiliated with the Italian Federation of Centers for the Diagnosis of Thrombotic Disorders and the Surveillance of the Antithrombotic Therapies - FCSA, recording that only few centers provided DOACs testing. In 2025, a second survey was performed to evaluate if a change in that area have occurred.
Results: We observed a rapid increase in the number of centers providing DOAC testing, from 39/124 (31.0%) in 2022 to 72/122 (59.0%) in 2025; 26% of centers not providing DOAC testing, claimed no funding for testing. In 70/72 (97.2%) of centers, DOAC testing was limited to selected conditions, such as thrombotic or hemorrhagic complications.
Conclusions: Data derived from our survey are relevant in developing adequate anticoagulation stewardship programs, that are increasingly required.
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Citations
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Ethics Approval
Not requiredCRediT authorship contribution
Conception and design: D.P., A.C., V.DM., A.I., G.M., G.R., C.S. Analysis and interpretation of the data: D.P., S.T., M.M. Drafting of the article: D.P. Critical revision of the article for important intellectual content. Final approval of the article: all the authors.
Supporting Agencies
Italian Federation of Centers for the Diagnosis of Thrombotic Disorders and the Surveillance of the Antithrombotic Therapies.Data Availability Statement
The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available upon reasonable request from the corresponding author.
How to Cite
1.
Poli D, Ciampa A, De Micheli V, Iannone AM, Malcangi G, Rescigno G, et al. Availability of direct oral anticoagulants testing among Italian anticoagulation clinics: a rapid evolution of clinical practice: On behalf of the Italian Federation of Centers for the Diagnosis of Thrombotic Disorders and the Surveillance of the Antithrombotic Therapies . Bleeding Thromb Vasc Biol [Internet]. 2026 Jun. 26 [cited 2026 Jun. 27];5(2). Available from: https://www.btvb.org/btvb/article/view/485
Copyright (c) 2026 The Author(s)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
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