The Effect of Medication Timing on Anticoagulation Stability in Users of Warfarin: The "INRange" RCT

Summary

Warfarin is an anticoagulant medication that is highly effective at preventing clotting disorders but which has a narrow therapeutic window. If warfarin is under effective patients are at risk of stroke, if it is over effective patients are at risk of bleeding complications. Physicians routinely and regularly measure a blood test (called the "INR") that determines the effectiveness of warfarin and have a range of test values (the "therapeutic range") in which they try to keep the patient. By convention warfarin is taken at dinnertime, however this is the same time of day that highly variable consumption of dietary vitamin K occurs (found largely in green leafy vegetables) and vitamin K alters the effectiveness of warfarin. Given vitamin K has a very short half-life (i.e. it is only active for a short period of time after it is ingested) it may make more sense to take warfarin in the morning (when very little vitamin K is ingested) to produce a more consistent drug effect. The purpose of this study is to determine whether switching current warfarin users from evening to morning dosing decreases time spent outside the therapeutic INR range.

Timeline

Start

2015-02

Primary completion

2016-09-30

Completion

2018-04-27

Publications

• Background Hirsh J, Fuster V, Ansell J, Halperin JL; American Heart Association; American College of Cardiology Foundation. American Heart Association/American College of Cardiology Foundation guide to warfarin therapy. Circulation. 2003 Apr 1;107(12):1692-711. doi: 10.1161/01.CIR.0000063575.17904.4E. No abstract available.
• Background van Walraven C, Jennings A, Oake N, Fergusson D, Forster AJ. Effect of study setting on anticoagulation control: a systematic review and metaregression. Chest. 2006 May;129(5):1155-66. doi: 10.1378/chest.129.5.1155.
• Background Hylek EM. Vitamin K antagonists and time in the therapeutic range: implications, challenges, and strategies for improvement. J Thromb Thrombolysis. 2013 Apr;35(3):333-5. doi: 10.1007/s11239-013-0900-5.
• Background UpToDate. Antithrombotic therapy to prevent embolization in atrial fibrillation. 2014; http://www.uptodate.com. Accessed June 6, 2014.
• Background Franco V, Polanczyk CA, Clausell N, Rohde LE. Role of dietary vitamin K intake in chronic oral anticoagulation: prospective evidence from observational and randomized protocols. Am J Med. 2004 May 15;116(10):651-6. doi: 10.1016/j.amjmed.2003.12.036.
• Background Olson RE. The function and metabolism of vitamin K. Annu Rev Nutr. 1984;4:281-337. doi: 10.1146/annurev.nu.04.070184.001433.
• Background Hansson L, Hedner T, Dahlof B. Prospective randomized open blinded end-point (PROBE) study. A novel design for intervention trials. Prospective Randomized Open Blinded End-Point. Blood Press. 1992 Aug;1(2):113-9. doi: 10.3109/08037059209077502.
• Heran BS, Allan GM, Green L, Korownyk C, Kolber M, Olivier N, Flesher M, Garrison S. Effect of medication timing on anticoagulation stability in users of warfarin (the INRange RCT): study protocol for a randomized controlled trial. Trials. 2016 Aug 4;17(1):391. doi: 10.1186/s13063-016-1516-9.

Drugs

Indications