COMPUTER-AIDED LONG-TERM ANTICOAGULATION THERAPY

A computer program is described which calculates a suggested daily anticoagulant dose schedule for a patient. The program requires previous prothrombin times and drug dosages as well as physician determined therapeutic goals and limits. A simple compartmental response model is used to predict prothrombin time responses from previous drug doses. Suitable future dose suggestions are calculated from these prothrombin time predictions. A retrospective study provided a test of the program's performance relative to that of resident physicians and three staff cardiologists at a large teaching hospital. The doses computed by the program were found to compare favorably with those of the pilot sample of physicians. © 1969.