What do Direct Oral Anticoagulants (DOACs) Mean to You?
Why is Monitoring of DOACs so Important?
DOACs are cleared from your body via the kidneys; this ensures your old dose is removed from your system before it’s time to take your new one.We can measure something known as Creatinine Clearance (CrCl) to estimate how well your kidneys are clearing the drug.
A low CrCl means that the drug isn’t cleared well and so can accumulate causing toxicity and bleeding.
When you were initially prescribed your DOAC, the GP carried out various blood tests to figure out your correct dose.
Ongoing monitoring is very important as it allows the doctor to decide if there needs to be any changes to your current medication by conducting repeat lab tests to check your kidney function (as well as other organ functions). If you have any kidney or liver impairments, are over the age of 75 and/or have existing comorbidities, you will be required to visit the GP more frequently for DOAC monitoring.
If you wish to find out more information about anticoagulants, please click here.