Summary
Point-of-care INR (POC INR) meters can provide a safe and effective method for monitoring
oral vitamin K antagonists (VKAs) in children. Stollery Children’s Hospital has a
large POC INR meter loan program for children requiring oral VKAs. Our protocol requires
that POC INR results be compared to the standard laboratory INR for each child on
several consecutive tests to ensure accuracy of CoaguChek XS® (Roche Diagnostics, Basel Switzerland) meter. It was the objective of the study to
determine the accuracy of the CoaguChek XS by comparing whole blood INR results from
the CoaguChek XS to plasma INR results from the standard laboratory in children. POC
INR meter validations were performed on plasma samples from two time points from 62
children receiving warfarin by drawing a venous blood sample for laboratory prothrombin
(PT)-INR measurements and simultaneous INR determinations using the POC-INR meter.
Agreement between CoaguChek XS INR and laboratory INR was assessed using Bland-Altman
plots. Bland-Altman's 95% limits of agreement were 0.11 (-0.20; 0.42) and 0.13 (-0.22;
0.48) at the two time points, respectively. In conclusion, the CoaguChek XS meter
appraisal generates an accurate and precise INR measure in children when compared
to laboratory INR test results.
Keywords
Point-of-care - international normalized ratio - warfarin - home monitoring - child