Acenocoumarol Pharmacogenetic Dosing Algorithm versus Usual Care in Patients with Venous Thromboembolism: A Randomised Clinical Trial

Patients with venous thromboembolism (VTE) require immediate treatment with anticoagulants such as acenocoumarol. This multicentre randomised clinical trial evaluated the effectiveness of a dosing pharmacogenetic algorithm versus a standard-of-care dose adjustment at the beginning of acenocoumarol treatment. We included 144 patients with VTE. On the day of recruitment, a blood sample was obtained for genotyping (CYP2C9*2, CYP2C9*3, VKORC1, CYP4F2, APOE). Dose adjustment was performed on day 3 or 4 after the start of treatment according to the assigned group and the follow-up was at 12 weeks. The principal variable was the percentage of patients with an international normalised ratio (INR) within the therapeutic range on day 7. Thirty-four (47.2%) patients had an INR within the therapeutic range at day 7 after the start of treatment in the genotype-guided group compared with 14 (21.9%) in the control group (p = 0.0023). There were no significant differences in the time to achieve a stable INR, the number of INRs within the range in the first 6 weeks and at the end of study. Our results suggest the use of a pharmacogenetic algorithm for patients with VTE could be useful in achieving target INR control in the first days of treatment.

Pharmacogenetic algorithm for predicting daily dose of warfarin in Caucasian patients of Czech origin

Objectives Warfarin use is limited by a low therapeutic index and significant interindividual variability of the daily dose. The most important factor predicting daily warfarin dose is individual genotype, polymorphisms of genes CYP2C9 (warfarin metabolism) and VKORC1 (sensitivity for warfarin). Algorithms using clinical and genetic variables could predict the daily dose before the initiation of therapy. The aim of this study was to develop and validate an algorithm for the prediction of warfarin daily dose in Czech patients. Methods Detailed clinical data of patients with known and stable warfarin daily dose were collected. All patients were genotyped for polymorphisms in genes CYP2C9 and VKORC1. Results Included patients were divided into derivation (n=175) and validation (n=223) cohorts. The final algorithm includes the following variables: Age, height, weight, treatment with amiodarone and presence of variant alleles of genes CYP2C9 and VKORC1. The adjusted coefficient of determination is 72.4% in the derivation and 62.3% in the validation cohort (p<0.001). Conclusions Our validated algorithm for warfarin daily dose prediction in our Czech cohort had higher precision than other currently published algorithms. Pharmacogenetics of warfarin has the potential in the clinical practice in specialized centers.