Protines?

[fret]

Anyone know what protines are? My mother keeps getting blood tests to find protines. So far we don't know what those are except her protines are too high and she has to take pills for it. :confused:

[coltsfan8116]

They have to do with the Clotting of your blood i believe ie thickness of your blood, I take it your mother is on blood thinners??? They keep an eye on your protines to make sure your blood is not to thin...

[*Cho*]

Do you mean proteins? Because when I google proteins is what comes up and there is no such word as protines on dictionary.com

Blood proteins tests are commonly done and there are a few types not all of them relate to blood coagulation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_protein

[TexSierra]

Having excessive amounts of protein in the blood can be bad. It typically is a symptom of a chronic infection or disease. Its your body trying to fight off the baddies infecting it. While not always, it can be serious. High protein count in the blood can be an early sign for AIDs, Cancer, muscle dystrophy, bacterial/fungal infection, physical injury (like bruises and broken bones), a diet excessively high in protein, among many other things. My hopes and prayers that it is mild, whatever the cause. Good luck.

[spyderknut]

Your mom is on coumadin, a common blood thinner. The blood tests to make sure her blood is not too thick or not too thin are called protimes short for prothrombin time (or even shorter PT). The INR (international normalization ratio) is what her doc looks at and is a calculated ratio of measured to normal PT. Target INR for most indications for coumadin is 2.0-3.0 with normal by definition being 1.0. Your mom probably has atrial fibrillation or as had a deep venous thrombosis or more ominously, a pulmonary thromoembolism. The most important things about coumadin are regular INR checks (usually once a month in steady state), dietary precautions (no big swings in Vitamin K intake) and drug interactions. If she has any easy bleeding (like ongoing bleeding after toothbrushing or blood in her stool) or very easy bruising, she needs to get her PT/INR checked.

Doc by profession, not moniker

[coltsfan8116]

Your mom is on coumadin, a common blood thinner. The blood tests to make sure her blood is not too thick or not too thin are called protimes short for prothrombin time (or even shorter PT). The INR (international normalization ratio) is what her doc looks at and is a calculated ratio of measured to normal PT. Target INR for most indications for coumadin is 2.0-3.0 with normal by definition being 1.0. Your mom probably has atrial fibrillation or as had a deep venous thrombosis or more ominously, a pulmonary thromoembolism. The most important things about coumadin are regular INR checks (usually once a month in steady state), dietary precautions (no big swings in Vitamin K intake) and drug interactions. If she has any easy bleeding (like ongoing bleeding after toothbrushing or blood in her stool) or very easy bruising, she needs to get her PT/INR checked.

Doc by profession, not moniker

Well this sounds a heck of alot better than my description.....:D:D

[fret]

Thanks to all for the replies. Wow. Well, she's 88 now and has a pacemaker. She wore a monitor several different times and the cardiologist said her heart "stopped and started" so they put a pacemaker in her chest. That was about two years ago. She's been going to the doctor and getting blood tests. She takes 3mg of warfarin every evening before bedtime. Sometimes her "Protines" or "Protimes" SP? are high like 4 or more and she has to take more warfarin. I have heard warfarin is a poison used to kill rats? Aside from that I guess a lot of people take it. She will get a blood test then the next day the doctor will call and tell her to take more or less warfarin. When the doctor or her assistant talks it sounds like they are saying, "p r o t i n e s" ? I still cannot get a real grasp of all of what's going on with the heart and blood and all that. Very confusing to me and she doesn't understand it either. We just do what the doctor says and hope it is the right thing to do. She also gets her pacemaker checked by phone. And goes to a cardiologist along with her family doctor. She does not want to take her medicine and I keep telling her to do so. She never had any chronic health problems and never would take pills. So it's very difficult for me to tell her to take her meds when I don't have a good idea of why she should take the meds. I kind of understand more now with spyderknut's explanation.She doesn't bleed easily. I don't know where vitamin K comes from? She does take a calcium pill as she has osteoarthritis and has had a compound fractured vertebrae which she had an operation on and was repaired. She now has the "hump" on her back. She's still alert and tries to keep up with everything. Again , thanks a lot for the help. I googled Protines and got nothing. I tried Web MD and got nothing. I just don't know where to get anymore info on protines or protimes?

[yablanowitz]

It would be very difficult for me to tell the difference between someone saying "pro-tines" and "pro-times" if I didn't know what they were talking about. Here is what I came up with when I plugged Spyderknut's "prothrombin time" into Copernic (the search engine I use instead of Google).

http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/prothrombin-time

There is some good information there.

[spyderknut]

Warfarin or coumadin is indeed rat poison. They die of pulmonary hemorrhage with what would be massive overdoses for a human per weight. Not pretty when a person is massively overdosed but it is hard to do with coumadin. There are more effective but more toxic similar drugs. I saw one patient in medical school who had somehow been poisoned with one of these superwarfarins. :eek:

[fret]

The nurse from the doctor's office called today. She said for my Mother to keep taking her warfarin 3mg per day and her Protines are normal and get a blood test in 4 weeks. My Mother asked her to spell Protines and she did. Protines is the way she spelled it (with the N). She said it is a test to see how thin the blood is (PT). I read the Web MD report, thanks for the help on that. I kinda get the idea of what it's about now. Clotting of the blood and how long it takes to clot or not to clot. Vitamin K can have an effect on the test. Vitamin K comes from foods like liver and some vegetables. Seems like there is a lot that could throw the test off track. It's a lot to absorb, for me at least but not so confusing now. Thanks for all the info. I've saved it and will refer to it again if my memory fails me.

[spyderknut]

I don't care how the "nurse " spelled it, it is protime. She is wrong or was misunderstood, period. It is the TIME blood takes to clot. This is something I deal with everyday and have for 20 years. Please.