Reprise: Validating POC INRs

Back to our April 24 anticoagulation clinic manager’s question about when to validate a prolonged point of care (POC) prothrombin time with international normalized ratio (PT/INR). George spoke with representatives of Roche Diagnostics, distributor of Coag-U-Chek instruments, while attending the May 3–5 Thrombosis and Hemostasis Summit of North America meeting in Chicago. While Roche contends this is a local decision and makes no firm recommendation, their managers assert that most clinic operators choose 4.0 as the INR above which they send the patient for a follow-up venous PT/INR.