AVR - St. Jude Regent - June 10, 2013

[Sten Osis]

Time flies! I haven't been here in a while..............

Life has been great since the implant and I've been fortunate to have no problems with my health since then. There was a little fussing over PT-INR last summer when Roche (Coagu-Chek) changed something unannounced. This resulted in several months of errant readings and re-checks at a local clinic. All in all, only a very small inconvenience.

This forum was a great help to me when I was facing AVR. I've since recommended it to two other people I know who needed similar surgeries. I'm sure if they looked it up, they were helped too.

Thanks everyone!

Mike Geitner

 

[Bina]

Mike, congrats on your upcoming Valversary !
We are twins--- I also have a 21mm St. Jude Regent valve and I home test with the Coaguchek XS monitor.
Last year I got a wonky INR reading and checked the batch number on my strips, they were suspicious, and were replaced after a phone call
to Roche in Montreal.
Keep ticking

 

[Protimenow]

Roche recalled a few batches of strips last year.

This had no effect on me -- I use the Coag-Sense meter. I tested all meters available to self-testers in the U.S. a few years ago, comparing the results to each other meter and to blood draws performed at trusted labs.

In my testing, I found that the most consistently accurate meter was the Coag-Sense. It uses a wheel located on the strip -- the wheel turns while the clot is forming, and stops turning when the clot is formed. An optical system determines the time to clot formation, and divides this time by a value for the reagent on the strip. The resulting INR is based on a physical determination.

CoaguChek XS and most other meters use electronic means for determining when a clot forms. In my testing, CoaguChek XS was reasonably accurate, but usually higher than the lab values. In cases where my INR was high (above 3.0), the variance from the lab and from my Coag-Sense results became increasingly higher as the INR rose.

For myself, I chose to trust the Coag-Sense for two reasons: its results were always closest to the lab results (with the few exceptions being clinics where the blood was mishandled and ridiculously high results obtained), and because the meter gives a value equal to, or below, that of the labs. I prefer to have my meter give me a result below that of the labs to one that gives a value higher than the lab. This way, if the lab gives me a 2.1, I can be confident that the value is 2.1-2.3 or so. Conversely, if the lab gives a value of 2.1, a meter that gives a reading that is the same or higher than the lab would leave me wondering if my actualy INR is below 2.0.

Having had a TIA because an InRatio gave me a 2.6, and the hospital test said 1.7, I am careful about my testing. Thankfully, the InRatio has been removed from the market.

I don't work for Coagusense, I have no financial interest in Coagusense, but I definitely prefer their meter to the CoaguChek. (I just got two strips for the CoaguChek XS and I'll be making renewed comparisons between the two).

 

[Duffey]

Congrats Mike!