Excessive prolongation of prothrombin time among patients treated with warfarin and admitted to the emergency room.

Introduction: Patients treated with warfarin are uncommonly admitted with excessive prolongation of international normalized ratio (INR) of prothrombin time (PT) to the emergency room (ER). Here we wanted to evaluate the reasons behind this prolongation, clinical and laboratory parameters, course and outcome of these patients.

Patients And Methods: Consecutive patients admitted to the ER with prolonged PT-INR>6 under warfarin treatment and who gave sufficient information regarding history of warfarin treatment, were followed prospectively.