A comparison of international normalised ratio (INR) measurement in hospital and general practice settings: evidence for lack of standardisation
- D A Fitzmaurice1,
- E T Murray1,
- T F Allan1,
- R L Holder1,
- P E Rose1,
- F D R Hobbs1
- 1Department of General Practice, Medical School, The University of Birmingham B15 2TT, UK
Previous reports of discrepancies in international normalised ratio (INR) measurement between centres have focused on hospital based methodologies.1–3 Previously, we have demonstrated differences in derived INR values for the same sample tested in primary care and in one of three different haematology laboratories.4 Our present study is an extension of the previous one, investigating comparative results based on contemporaneous samples measured in one primary care centre and in two hospital laboratories using a variety of techniques.
Venous blood was drawn from patients in one primary care centre over a three month …
