Monitoring of dabigatran
Monitoring the anticoagulant effect of dabigatran is not required. However, testing can be useful when knowing the degree of anticoagulation can alter patient management, such as for clinically significant bleeding, urgent surgery, or following stroke or thromboembolism in a patient taking dabigatran.
Dabigatran prolongs activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT), thrombin time (TT) and prothrombin time (PT). The TT test is too sensitive to quantify the anticoagulant effect of dabigatran, so use a dilute TT test (eg Hemoclot assay) instead.