Monitoring of rivaroxaban
Monitoring the anticoagulant effect of rivaroxaban 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 rivaroxaban.
The prothrombin time (PT) assay screens for the presence of rivaroxaban-related anticoagulant effect. However, some reagents show a normal PT when rivaroxaban is present, so standard PT assays cannot quantify the rivaroxaban concentration. Quantify the drug concentration with an anti-Xa assay using rivaroxaban-specific calibrators.