Dental management of a child on anticoagulant therapy and the International Normalized Ratio: case report.

A 7-year-old girl with a history of four prosthetic heart valve replacements and daily anticoagulant therapy was treated with modification of the anticoagulant regimen and hospitalization. Coagulation times now are being expressed using the International Normalized Ratio (INR), a move by the international medical community to standardized laboratory values worldwide. This report describes this new measure and its role in patient assessment.