Time in therapeutic range for virtual anticoagulation clinic versus in-person clinic during the COVID-19 pandemic: a crossover study

BACKGROUND: COVID-19 infection affects the quality of the medical services globally. The pandemic required changes to medical services in several institutions. We established a virtual clinic for anticoagulation management during the pandemic using the Whatsapp application. OBJECTIVES: Compare anticoagulation management quality in virtual versus in-person clinics. DESIGN: A retrospective crossover study SETTINGS: Specialized cardiac care center PATIENTS AND METHODS: The study included patients who presented to Prince Sultan Cardiac Center in Riyadh for anticoagulation management during the pandemic from March 2020 to January 2021. We compared time in therapeutic range (TTR) in the same patients during virtual and in-person clinics. All international normalized ratio (INR) measures during the virtual clinic visits and prior ten INR measures from the in-person clinic were recorded. Patients who had no prior follow-up in the in-person clinic were excluded. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: TTR calculated using the Rosendaal method. SAMPLE SIZE: 192 patients RESULTS: The mean age was 58.6 (16.6) years and 116 (60.4%) were males. Patients were diagnosed with atrial fibrillation (n=101, 52.6%), mechanical mitral valve (n=88, 45.8%), mechanical aortic valve (n=79, 41%), left ventricular thrombus (n=5, 2.6%) and venous thromboembolism (n=8, 4.2%). Riyadh residents represented 56.7% of the study population (n=93). The median (IQR) percent TTR was 54.6 (27.3) in the in-person clinic versus 50.0 (33.3) (P=.07). CONCLUSION: Virtual clinic results were comparable to in-person clinics for anticoagulation management during the COVID-19 pandemic. LIMITATIONS: Number of INR measures during the virtual clinic visits, retrospective nature and single-center experience. CONFLICT OF INTEREST: None.