Summary
Many patients treated with vitamin K antagonists (VKA) determine their INR using point-of-care
(POC) whole blood coagulation monitors. The primary aim of the present study was to
assess the INR within-subject variation in self-testing patients receiving a constant
dose of VKA. The second aim of the study was to derive INR imprecision goals for whole
blood coagulation monitors. Analytical performance goals for INR measurement can be
derived from the average biological within-subject variation. Fifty-six Thrombosis
Centres in the Netherlands were invited to select self-testing patients who were receiving
a constant dose of either acenocoumarol or phenprocoumon for at least six consecutive
INR measurements. In each patient, the coefficient of variation (CV) of INRs was calculated.
One Thrombosis Centre selected regular patients being monitored with a POC device
by professional staff. Sixteen Dutch Thrombosis Centres provided results for 322 selected
patients, all using the CoaguChek XS. The median within-subject CV in patients receiving
acenocoumarol (10.2 %) was significantly higher than the median CV in patients receiving
phenprocoumon (8.6 %) (p = 0.001). The median CV in low-target intensity acenocoumarol
self-testing patients (10.4 %) was similar to the median CV in regular patients monitored
by professional staff (10.2 %). Desirable INR analytical imprecision goals for POC
monitoring with CoaguChek XS in patients receiving either low-target intensity acenocoumarol
or phenprocoumon were 5.1 % and 4.3 %, respectively. The approximate average value
for the imprecision of the CoaguChek XS, i. e. 4 %, is in agreement with these goals.
Keywords
Vitamin K–antagonist - point-of-care testing - International Normalized Ratio - within-subject
variation - analytical performance goal