Abstract
The use of anticoagulation treatment is expanding and therapy using oral anticoagulants is improving and developing. In the submitted paper the authors present basic indications for anticoagulation treatment.
The preparation most widely used recently in this country is warfarin. Defining the optimal maintenance dose of warfarin to achieve that the value of the INR Quick s test varies within the recommended range is a problem despite the fact that its pharmacokinetics are well known.
The authors elaborated a computer model for prediction of the warfarin dosage, based on the assumption that the interindividual reactions of the organism to warfarin depend more on the pharmacodynamic than pharmacokinetic variability of warfarin. Based on the INR Quick s test on the third day after the onset of warfarin administration the model can predict the probable maintenance dose which is defined more accurately during subsequent administration.
The described model was tested in a group of 52 patients where the warfarin dosage was elaborated on a computer. The control group was formed by patients where the warfarin dosage was elaborated in the standard way without computer assistance.
The time needed to establish the optimal maintenance dose of warfarin was on average reduced to 75% of the time (on average 7.5 days in the control group, 5.6 days in the investigated group). After computer-assisted warfarin dosage no haemorrhagic complications or overdosage occurred (INR 6.5) while, in the control group two cases of overdosage were recorded.