Purposes: To evaluate the reproducibility of an automated method (IL test Pro-IL-Complex) in the control of oral anticoagulant therapy.
Patients and methods: Samples from patients subjected to oral anticoagulants were analysed with two different methods in order to compare the International Normalized Ratio (INR). The results were studied with the regression analysis and the statistical SPSS programme.
Results: Two INR values were attained in 422 samples studied with Thrombotest and Pro-IL Complex. The correlation coefficient (r) between both values was 0.94. When establishing anticoagulation limits of 2.0 and 4.8 for Thrombotest and 1.66 and 4.2 for Pro-IL Complex, the percentage of coincidence between the two methods was above 90%. These findings were more evident when analysing separately those patients with coronary or vascular disease subjected to chronic anticoagulant treatment.
Conclusions: These findings show that Pro-IL Complex test renders results similar to those attained with Thrombotest. Since the former is an automated method available for most of the coagulometers used in clinical laboratories, its easy management, rapidity and possibility for using computerized data are most valuable.