Remcel Mae P. Canete

Canadian Prescription Blood Thinner May Lessen Clot Risks

Individuals consuming blood-thinning Canadian prescription drug Warfarin and monitoring their own blood, at the same adjusting their dosage can decrease the threat of blood clots by 50 percent. 

Individuals consuming blood-thinning Canadian prescription drug Warfarin and monitoring their own blood, at the same adjusting their dosage can decrease the threat of blood clots by 50 percent. 

"The concept of self-care and self-monitoring is a growing part of health care it is used widely in diabetes, asthma and hypertension management," said lead researcher Dr. Carl Heneghan, director of the Center for Evidence-Based Medicine at the University of Oxford. 

"The evidence shows that self-monitoring is an effective strategy to reduce thromboembolic events in patients taking oral anticoagulants such as Warfarin," he added. 

"In Germany, as many as 20 percent of those who buy Warfarin check their own blood and adjust their dosage accordingly, while in the United States only about 1 percent of similar patients do so," the researchers said. 

Dr. Paul Alexander Kyrle, from the department of internal medicine at the Medical University of Vienna and co-author of an accompanying journal editorial, said "the effect of self-monitoring is not the same for all patient groups." 

"Whereas patients with mechanical heart valves benefit, especially men younger than 55, other patient groups, including those with atrial fibrillation, do not," he noted. 

"There are now new oral anticoagulants on the market, which are at least as safe and effective as compared with Warfarin, and they do not require regular coagulation monitoring. So many patients with atrial fibrillation will switch from Warfarin to the new substances in the very near future," Kyrle said.  Further, these new meds are readily available in various Canadian drugstores. 

Another expert, Dr. Gregg Fonarow, associate chief of cardiology at the University of California, Los Angeles, agreed. "More recent drugs such as rivaroxaban (Xarelto), apixaban (Eliquis) and dabigatran (Pradaxa) provide safe and effective anticoagulation without the need for any blood tests," he said. "Many patients requiring anticoagulation will find these new oral agents to be the most attractive option," Fonarow said.

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