Atrial Fibrillation (AFib) Support Group

Atrial fibrillation (AF or afib) is an abnormal heart rhythm (cardiac arrhythmia) which involves the two small, upper heart chambers (the atria). Heart beats in a normal heart begin after electricity generated in the atria by the sinoatrial node spread through the heart and cause contraction of the heart muscle and pumping of blood.

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/ Atrial Fibrillation (AFib) Support Group

Holy Cow-My INR Is High

tomorrowsdream
tomorrowsdream
I'm not sure what happened in a week, but my INR runs about 2.6 for the most part on 2.5 mg of warfarin. Yesterday I took it and it was 4.6. Now, I'm off it for 3 days. I can't even imagine where this crazy reading came from, so I waited 2 hr. and took it again, and yep same reading. It's not like I take a huge dose of wararin. I take a relative small dose compared to most people, but it must have intereacted with something, and I'm clueless what it was.

My INR has remained the same for more then a yr. on 2.5 mg. of wararin. Any ideas why it would go so high. I'm under stress, but that wouldn't affect it would it?
Dee
pacyetep
pacyetep
Your logic makes sense to me tomorrowsdream, but the long term effects of ablation are unknown, not just 10 years... I was just trying to sort that out in my head. For me, that and possible complications concern me. And the rhythm drugs scare me more than any anticoagulant. I'm not sure what you think of Dr John Mandrola, but he says with all the hoopla about Pradaxa and similar drugs, Coumadin still has the highest bleed and hospitalization rate of any drug seniors take. I DO commend you on home testing. I would do that to. Like you, I am in persistent afib and am asymptomatic, so I know cardioversions and ablation (and certainly rhythm control) are less likely to work and still carry immediate risks. petey
tomorrowsdream
tomorrowsdream
Petey, you have it reversed. Pradaxa is much more likely to cause bleeds then coumadin. I've done a lot of reading up on it. It's had no effect on me in the time I've been taking it, so I don't think about it. It's nice having the meter to check any time you want too, but if you don't have one then Pradaxa is the way to go. You know, Petey, they will tell us anything about a product to sell it...same with antiarrhythmics. I changed cardiologists because mine was stuck on conversions, and my feeling is if you have it done twice and it doesn't work for persistent AF, it isn't going too. I didn't plan on lining his pockets anymore, so I found someone much more positive and who doesn't push cardioversion.
pacyetep
pacyetep
.Dr John Mandrola:

April 8, 2011 at 10:15 pm
"Thats the thing with dabigatran; its novel. Dabigatran thins the blood enough to prevent more strokes with fewer intracranial bleeds than warfarinas demonstrated in the 18,000 patient RE-LY trial, 12,000 of whom took dabigatran."

Works better, less brain bleeds.

petey


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tomorrowsdream
tomorrowsdream
Petey, isn't that the brand new drug for atrial fib. It's not pradaxa right I don't know a thing about this drug to be honest.
deleted_user
deleted_user
Dibigatran = Pradaxa
pacyetep
pacyetep
dabigatran=pradaxa= pradax (in Canada)

I learned how to say Da-big-a tran. It impresses alot of people when I say it... I mix in things like "well tolerated" and "non-inferior" and people look at me like I'm some kind of Electrophysiologist.

Actually, I remember Dabigatran because it sounds like an Italian with broken language (I'm half Italian so I can say this stuff) talking about a long train ... I'm a takin da bigga tran!"

:-)

petey