Ask the doctor: Should I try one of the new blood thinners?
Although their risk of causing unwanted bleeding is somewhat less than that of warfarin, if most of your INRs have fallen within the target range, it's not clear whether your risk of bleeding will be lower with a new agent. Also, with these new agents, there is no known way to tell whether you are getting too much or too little of the drug. In addition, dabigatran needs to be taken twice a day. So, I would not rush to these new drugs just for convenience's sake. Since you are doing so well on warfarin, I would wait a bit and see what additional information becomes available.
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