Call for heart patients to be allowed self-test their medication

THOUSANDS of Irish people with heart disease and other blood-clotting disorders could regain control of their lives if they were able to self-test the effectiveness of their medication, a patients’ support group has claimed.

AntiCoagulation Europe (ACE), a charity providing information and advice to people on oral anticoagulation therapy, is campaigning to have the strips for self-testing available on prescription in Ireland in the same way as they are in Britain and the North.

Anticoagulant drugs help prevent the formation of harmful clots in blood vessels by decreasing the blood's ability to clump together. Although these drugs are sometimes called blood thinners, they do not actually thin the blood.