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Can Prothrombin Time Be Done At Home After Heart Valve Replacement?

Posted on Mon, 3 Feb 2014

Question: I am reading up on PRO-Time testing for my wife. She had a heart valve replaced several years ago and is on Warfarin. She is suppose to maintain a protime reading of 30 as per her heart doctor. I am 73 and drive 60 miles every month to take her to a Pro-Time clinic in Corpus XXXXXXX XXXXXXX The trip is getting more difficult and I am trying to see IF I can do the Pro-Time at home and feed the info to the doctor as needed. She, my wife takes 20 mg of Warfarin a day and sometimes a little more or less as ordered by the tester in Corpus. The question is Could I do this at home. We are a Tri-Care family. I'm retired E-9

Answered by Dr. Anshul Varshney (39 minutes later)

Brief Answer: INR measuring instrument can be purchased Detailed Answer: Dear Friend. Hi , I am Dr Anshul Varshney , I have read your query in detail , I understand your concern. Maintaining recommended Prothrombin time / INR is really important for your wife. Unfortunately , there is no recommended home way out to solve this purpose. However , there are instruments available to measure INR at home. You can en quire about them in your country , and if available you can use them. Many people use them for this purpose at there home , and are quite effective for this purpose. However , since this is a serious matter, i personally advise my patients to first check the patency and efficacy of there instrument , by testing with the same sample at home and at a laboratory. A slight difference is acceptable. This is my personal opinion based on details available here. If you still have any query you may please ask me. Stay Healthy. Dr Anshul Varshney , MD

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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar