Blood thinning medications such as warfarin (Coumadin®) and some of the newer agents may be prescribed for various heart and vascular conditions. We offer office-based monitoring to help patients achieve their therapeutic goals.
When first starting therapy with anticoagulation, it is important to have frequent blood tests in order for the proper dosage to be determined. Your treating physician will review the result, and increase or decrease the dosage of medication to reach the “target range”. Most patients will be asked to have their blood test drawn twice a week initially. As the dose becomes more routine, the testing intervals can be spaced out.
If you take your medication only at night, your physician can conveniently make an adjustment in your dosage on the same day as the blood test. Otherwise, the dosage must be altered starting on the following day. After each dose change, another test is recommended in several days to monitor the result of the new dosage.
As a patient on a powerful blood thinning medication, you should continue to work with one physician who takes charge of the dosing of this medication.
At CVMG we also offer guidance in additional options for blood thinning, including some of the newer agents on the market including low molecular heparin injections, and thrombin inhibitors such as dabigatran (Pradaxa®) and rivaroxaban (Xarelto®).