A female client with liver cirrhosis and chronic anemia is hospitalized for a deep venous thrombosis. The client is receiving a heparin infusion and suddenly develops epistaxis. Which laboratory value would indicate that the heparin infusion needs to be turned off?
The international normalized range (INR) is a standardized protombine time range. The higher the INR, the more difficult bleeding complications the patient may have. The risk of bleeding increases if the INR is above 4 and it is better to stop the heparin.
