Self-monitoring of PT/INR using hand-held devices allows for frequent monitoring, which may improve outcomes and reduce complications associated with long-term warfarin therapy.
May inform patient discussions on warfarin self-monitoring; leaves open need for RCTs to confirm outcome benefits.
Small, hand-held monitoring devices are available that patients undergoing long-term warfarin therapy can use to monitor their prothrombin time (PT) and international normalized ratio (INR). PT and INR can be quickly and accurately measured, using only a drop of capillary blood obtained from a finger stick. Convenient monitoring allows for frequent monitoring, which results in improved client outcomes and fewer of the complications commonly associated with anticoagulation therapy. As the use of this technology increases, nurses will assume an active role in the safe and effective implementation of anticoagulation self-monitoring.
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Pence et al. (2005) studied this question.
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