Standardized low-molecular-weight heparin bridging regimen in outpatients on oral anticoagulants undergoing invasive procedure or surgery: an inception cohort management study.

Background: Bridging therapy with low-molecular-weight heparin is usually recommended in patients who must stop oral anticoagulants before surgical or invasive procedures. To date, there is no universally accepted bridging regimen tailored to the patient's thromboembolic risk. This prospective inception cohort management study was designed to assess the efficacy and safety of an individualized bridging protocol applied to outpatients.

Usefulness of lyophilized calibration plasmas for International Normalized Ratio determination with the bovine combined thromboplastin (Thrombotest): results of a collaborative study.

The logical solution to account for the influence of coagulometers on the International Sensitivity Index (ISI) is local calibration with freeze-dried plasmas. However, because of their unpredictable behavior these plasmas must be validated before large-scale implementation. We report on a collaborative exercise designed to evaluate the suitability of a set of such plasmas used with Thrombotest in combination with a coagulometer provided by the manufacturer to be used with that reagent.