Hi I have come across a concern regarding adding the weekly dose of warfarin on RAt programme for new patients. This is information I have regarding a pt and I would appreciate your advise on weekly dosage to be recorded.

Day 1 inr 2.3 warfarin 5mg
Day 2 inr 2.1 warfarin 2mg
Day 3 inr 2.6 warfarin 2mg

Hope to hear from you soon Ta;. Patricia

Dear Patricia,
This is always a difficult area where a patient has been started on warfarin but not stabilised, usually a discharge from hospital. Some practices daily dose their patients for about 7-14 days then enter on RAT once stabilised.

In this case if this was our patient I would enter the date of day 3, enter INR of 2.6 and use a weekly dose of 14mg and bring the patient back in either 24 or 48 hours.

I hope this helps
Colm Rafferty

How do I add patient with no previous readings, who has just been started on warfarin?