Anticoagulation
Listen to conversations about Anticoagulation:
Leaving the Hospital on Coumadin
The total change when you leave the hospital on Coumadin can modify Coumadin doses significantly. Get a blood test, an INR, very soon after you leave so you can anticipate these changes in Coumadin dose.
Genetics of Coumadin
We can measure two liver proteins that affect how long Coumadin stays in the blood. Measuring these two proteins may allow us to use Coumadin more safely. That research is ongoing.
Vitamin K and Coumadin
Vitamin K are chemicals that allow your body to change inactive proteins made in the liver into proteins that can protect you from bleeding excessively. Vitamin K is in food, made in your colon or stored in your liver.
Stopping Coumadin
Coumadin can be stopped electively, or transiently, because of bleeding. Talk with your physician about what to do if a high INR or bleeding occurs. The goal is to decrease your risks temporarily for use of Coumadin later.
Home Monitoring of Coumadin
Home monitoring using an INR measured on a drop of blood from a finger stick. Then, people have more freedom to travel on Coumadin and to get tests immediately should they be bleeding or hurt themselves.
Pain Management and Coumadin
Pain meds can change your sensitivity to Coumadin and lead to an increased risk to bleed or clot. For mild or moderate pain, Tylenol with or without codeine is safe. Avoid drugs like persistent Advil (Motrin) and aspirin.
Starting Coumadin
Coumadin is given to people who have an established thrombus or clot or who at risk to have a clot. An INR and history to include other meds, other illnesses and diet will determine how you get Coumadin.
Anticoagulation Clinics
If you have had a blood clot, proper use of Coumadin is essential. Coumadin Clinics focus on the use of this and other drugs to prevent clotting but also minimize bleeding, emphasizing education and immediate test results.
Introduction to Coumadin part 2
Patients on Coumadin need to be clear about what Coumadin does, and why blood tests can help you get through routine days as well as days around surgery safely. “Safety” means decreasing two risks: thrombosis and bleeding.
Introduction to Coumadin part 1
Too many patients are unclear about what coumadin does, and why it’s critically important that monitoring be frequent. You need to know how to decrease the chances of have another clot and yet minimize the chances of bleeding.
Reducing Coumadin Risk Through Genetic Testing
Dr. Robert Rodvien, the founder of the Coumadin Clinic at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco, identifies some reasons why people need different doses of Coumadin. Certain genes control how Coumadin is broken down by the body and how Vitamin K is … Continue reading
Vitamin K and Coumadin
There are many variables in our lives—genetic material, illnesses, fever, drugs and foods — that affect how sensitive any individual is to Coumadin. Foods contain Vitamin K and it is this vitamin that can affect Coumadin’s ability to prevent clots or promote bleeding. Vitamin … Continue reading
How Aspirin and Plavix Interact with Coumadin
Coumadin’s main risk is that it can cause or exaggerate bleeding. The reasons are many, but one of the main reasons is the addition of drugs, like aspirin and Plavix, that interact with Coumadin directly, modify other defenses the body … Continue reading