Anticoagulants Control Blood Clotting Anticoagulation medication
helps control how fast your blood clots, which helps prevent
clots from forming inside your heart, arteries or veins.
Anticoagulants can also prevent existing clots from getting
larger or from breaking off and traveling to your major organs.
Blood Tests with Anticoagulants Once you begin taking
anticoagulation medications, you will need regular blood tests
to determine if the medication is working. You will go to a
laboratory about once a month for the clotting-time tests and
your doctor will use the test results to determine whether to
change your anticoagulant medication dosage. There are also home
self-testing kits available. St. Jude Medical works with Philips
Remote Cardiac Services and HemoSense to provide patient self-
testing services to physicians and patients with mechanical
heart valves. Visit inrselftest.com or hemosense.com to learn
more. Watching Your Diet, Other Medications and Vitamins Certain
prescription medication, over-the-cou