PT/INR Testing

Hi Kim, our anticoag clinics and a few of the fam meds who are still doing POC PT INR testing use the Roche xs meter.

We are in the process of validating the Hemochron Signature Elites for citrated PTINR. It's considered to be moderately complex. 

We are using the Coaguchek XS plus.  You can put a patient ID# in it and do QC lockout.  I really like it.

We have the coaguchek XS Plus as well and our users really like it. Plus, it's waived!

We also use the CoaguChek XS.  Ours is the Pro model so it is interfaced.  I imagine it would be less expensive than i-STAT.  I'm not a fan of the code chip process, but I don't have any experience with any other meter.  I agree with Jessica; waived status is nice!

KIm we make them draw a lab INR at 4.0.

We also use the CoaguChek XS Pro.  It is "connected" and we are happy with the results.

I have a comment about the iSTAT INR method.  Years ago we stopped using it because of discrepant results.  This was discovered during our bi-annual comparisons with the lab method.  One result did not match, so we broadened our study and found a few more.  We suspected an interfering substance.  Chart review of patient medications did not yield any obvious clues.  Abbott was notified, but they could not explain the discrepancies.

We switched when Roche had issues with their strip in 2018.  We made the change to the CoagSense to remain waived status.  We have been with CoagSense since then.  We did work through some issues, but none of my locations would want to change back.  The pharmacy is actually working to convert the home testers to the CoagSense as well.  The CoagSense is a mechanical clot detection and correlates to our lab reagent (Innovin) extremely well.  We recently just validated the entire range up to 8.0 for an INR.  The CoaguChek is a calculation (best fit line read) and did not correlate well.  We have even interfaced our CoaguSense through RALS.  I would highly recommend and happy to answer any specific questions.