Self management of oral anticoagulation: randomised trial

摘要

Objective To determine the clinical effectiveness of self management compared with routine care in patients on long term oral anticoagulants.Design Multicentre open randomised controlled trial.Setting Midlands region of the UK.Participants 617 patients aged over 18 and receiving warfarin randomised to intervention (n = 337) and routine care (n = 280) from 2470 invited; 193/337 (57%) completed the 12 month intervention.Intervention Intervention patients used a point of care device to measure international normalised ratio twice a week and a simple dosing chart to interpret their dose of warfarin.Main outcome measure Percentage of time spent within the therapeutic range of international normalised ratio.