Abstract

Background: INR is used to monitor the treatment with vitamin K antagonists. A strategy to reduce waiting times for sampling is to measure INR in a capillary sample using a portable point of care (POC) type coagulometer. Aim: To evaluate the correlation of CoaguChek Pro IITM, XpreciaTM and microINRTM with venous INR measured at the clinical laboratory and their ease of use. Materials and Methods: Patients provided capillary and venous blood samples for parallel tests comparing XpreciaTM Stride with CoaguChek Pro IITM and with venous INR, microINRTM with CoaguChek Pro IITM and with venous INR. The devices’ ease of use was assessed surveying the sampling staff. Results: The three tested devices had good correlation coefficients with venous INR: CoaguChek Pro IITM 0.953 and 0.962; XpreciaTM of 0.912 and microINRTM of 0.932. The correlation coefficient of XpreciaTM with CoaguChek Pro IITM was 0.937 and microINRTM with CoaguChek Pro IITM was 0.976. Conclusions: CoaguChek Pro IITM, XpreciaTM and microINRTM results had a good correlation coefficient with INR measured at the laboratory. Our results indicate that, in the hands of trained users, POC-type coagulometers are reliable and acceptable for routine use in anticoagulant treatment control.