TY - JOUR AU - Lippi, Giuseppe AU - Mattiuzzi, Camilla AU - Cervellin, Gianfranco AU - Favaloro, Emmanuel J. PY - 2017 TI - Direct oral anticoagulants: analysis of worldwide use and popularity using Google Trends JF - Annals of Translational Medicine; Vol 5, No 16 (August 11, 2017): Annals of Translational Medicine Y2 - 2017 KW - N2 - Abstract: Background: Four direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) have been approved for clinical use by many medicines regulatory agencies around the world. Due to increasing use of these drugs in routine practice, we planned an original study to investigate their worldwide diffusion using a popular Web-search engine. Methods: Two electronic searches were performed using Google Trends, the former using the keywords “warfarin” AND “heparin” AND “fondaparinux”, and the latter using the keywords “warfarin” AND “dabigatran” AND “rivaroxaban” AND “apixaban” AND “edoxaban”, both using the search criterion “prescription drug”. No language restriction was applied, and the searches were carried out from the first date available in Google Trends (January 1 st , 2004) to present time (June 1 st , 2017). Results: The median Google Trends score of warfarin (i.e., 86) was consistently higher than that of heparin (54; P Conclusions: The results of our analysis suggest that the popularity of DOACs is constantly increasing around the world, whereas that of warfarin has exhibited a constant and inexorable decline. UR - https://atm.amegroups.org/article/view/15685