A Bluetooth device to manage your anti-coagulant treatment. This is what the Roche laboratories by creating the CoaguChek® INRange system. By a simple prick at the end of a finger, as for a blood sugar test for diabetic patients for example, patients on anticoagulants can perform their own coagulation tests. The results are then transmitted by Bluetooth to the doctors. “Patients are thus free to continue their normal daily activities, their quality of life being thus preserved, while maintaining the link with their healthcare professionals.“, welcomes Roche in a press release.
Frequent steps to adjust anticoagulant doses
To be safe and effective, the dose of anti-vitamin K (VKA) anticoagulant therapy should be adjusted regularly by measuring the time it takes for the blood to clot frequently. This value is called the International Normalized Ratio (INR). It allows to standardize the measured biological value, the level of prothrombin (PT), which differs according to the methods of analysis and the laboratories. Doctors must therefore follow the so-called TP / INR data. The self-measurement kit allows this data to be transmitted frequently to healthcare professionals, while reducing the number of laboratory visits.
More monitoring, less clots and bleeding
The aim is for the patient’s INR to be between the lower and upper target limits as often as possible. This duration is called Time in the Therapeutic Zone. “The more time patients spend in the treatment area, the less likely they are to experience complications such as blood clots or excessive bleeding“Roche laboratories point out. However, patients who carry out their monitoring correctly spend more time inside their therapeutic zone,”which results in a lower incidence ofstroke(Stroke) or bleeding“explains Roche. This innovation could therefore simplify daily life and improve the health of patients on anticoagulant treatments, such as people suffering from atrial fibrillation, deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolism or even patients with mechanical heart valve. The most frequent risks associated with taking these treatments are hemorrhagic accidents.
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