A comparison between capillary and venous blood international normalized ratio determinations in a portable prothrombin time device.

The CoaguChek PT system is a portable point-of-care device for prothrombin time testing that can be used with capillary and venous whole blood. This system had been calibrated by the manufacturer in terms of the international normalized ratio (INR) for monitoring oral anticoagulant therapy. The purpose of the present study was to compare capillary blood with venous blood INRs from healthy volunteers and patients treated with oral anticoagulants using the same CoaguChek PT system. Two different CoaguChek PT strip formulations [international sensitivity index (ISI), 1.5 and 1.1] were used in separate test series. The differences between capillary and venous blood INRs were statistically significant (P < 0.001) but the magnitude of the differences was small. The mean relative deviations of the INR were 5.8 and 2.8% for the strips with ISI 1.5 and 1.1, respectively. These deviations are clinically acceptable. It is concluded that capillary blood can be replaced by venous blood for the calibration of the CoaguChek PT system.