Capillary testing in an anticoagulant clinic: comparison of two methods: Fig 1

Complaints from patients about the discomfort associated with capillary testing by lancets, and discrepancy between the results of capillary and venous prothrombin time testing prompted a search for an alternative method of sampling. Automatic capillary testing devices have been successfully used in children1 and were found to be less painful by patients and easy to use by technologists when piloted in our anticoagulant clinic. We tested one such device, the Tenderlett, in our clinic. Ethics committee approval was obtained from the New River Health Authority. All patients in a routine anticoagulant clinic were asked to participate in the study after they had been given oral and written explanations. Thirty seven patients (50% of total attenders) gave written consent and were asked to have two capillary tests—one with the usual lancet method and one with a Tenderlett device (ITC, Margate, UK)—and a venepuncture. The international normalised ratio …