The Success of Self-Testing for Anticoagulation Therapy

Aim: The optimal therapeutic range for INR of the patient who were on warfarin therapy is narrow. There are various methods of INR monitoring to adjust the appropriate dosage of warfarin therapy. This study aims to test the reliability of POC (Point of care) devices used for INR(International normalized ratio) monitoring. Material and Method: Forty six  patients who were on warfarin therapy for any reasons were enrolled for this study. Their INR  were divided into 3 groups according to their laboratory INR results. Grup 1 had INR results lower than 2, group 2 had INR levels of 2 to 3.5, group 3 had INR levels of higher than 3.5 INR of the patients were remeasured with the POC device.  Results: The ages of the patients were between 24 to 84. Twenty six patients were male and 20 were female. The mean INR level of laboratory measurements was 1.26 in group 1 whereas it was 1.45 for POC device measurements. There were not statistically significant difference between two devices for group 1 (p=0.15). In group 2 the mean INR levels were measured by laboratory instrument and POC device were 2.74 and 3.51 respectively (p=0,01). In group 3 mean INR levels were measured by laboratory instrument and POC device were 4.27 and 5.25 respectively (p=0.01). Discussion: We suppose it is rational to adjust warfarin dosage by specialists using laboratory results in order to prevent hemorrhagic and thromboembolic complications