ADLM’s new guidance to enhance patient care, taking blood thinners

Announcement

The Association for Diagnostics and Laboratory Medicine (ADLM) has introduced a smart expert-proven guidance on coagulation testing in patients on blood thinners who have a high chance of disrupting these tests. By supporting laboratory medicine professionals and clinicians to map the critical testing scenarios that are faced by these patients, largely, the new guidelines will make sure they still get effective treatment and appropriate diagnoses.

About Blood Thinners

The Direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) are common blood thinners. Patients take these blood thinners to avoid complications that accelerate due to blood clotting involving deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolism, and stroke. It’s different from older anticoagulants as DOACs don’t need any constant monitoring with coagulation testing that calculates the blood’s potency to clot. Following different scenarios, speculations and severity, many experts formed by the Academy of Diagnostics and Laboratory Medicine have introduced a guidance document on this particular topic.

The document simplifies and leads the major points from the huge body of existing medical reports and published research.

Recommendation based on the document

According to different scenarios, the guideline’s indication varies precisely. The main recommendations are that the healthcare providers and labs, if possible, should prevent clot-based testing for DOAC patients. The guidelines specify the tests that may or may not be susceptible to disturbance from these drugs. With this, healthcare professionals and labs can make well-informed decisions to select suitable tests for this patient group.

In situations where clot-based testing is required, clinicians and labs can alleviate DOAC’s capable effects by treating blood samples prior to the testing with agents that balance those effects. Based on any strategy implementation, the clinicians and laboratory medicine professionals should be under good and valuable communication terms, as both expertise and perspective are valuable to provide apt treatment for the patients.

The authors of the document, Drs. Neil S. Harris, Olajumoke O. Oladipo, Louise M. Man, Anna E. Merrill, Maximo J. Marin and Lindsay A.L. Bazydlo said, “The clinicians asking for coagulation testing for patients on DOACs should consider these scenarios thoroughly as this needs discretion to encourage optimal timing and accuracy for testing. The partnership and communication with the laboratory staff and leadership should be referred to before the testing. The laboratory medical director can offer guidance to the clinical team on recent methodologies and interpretation of results for DOAC patients.”