Vitamin K and the oral anticoagulant drugs.

The evolution of vitamin K, from a dietary deficiency in birds to a postribosomal modifier of prothrombin in man, has been a fascinating scientific saga. Its antivitamin, the oral anticoagulant drugs, has been a powerful probe both of vitamin K action and of drug interactions. These agents have emerged from a limbo of clinical therapeutics to become a light of human pharmacology.