History
The prothrombin time was discovered by Dr Armand Quick and colleagues in 1935, and a second method was published by Dr Paul Owren, also called the "p and p" or "prothrombin and proconvertin" method. It aided in the identification of the anticoagulants dicumarol and warfarin, and was used subsequently as a measure of activity for warfarin when used therapeutically.
The INR was introduced in the early 1980s, by Dr. Jack Hirsh and colleagues at McMaster University School of Medicine, when it turned out that there was a large degree of variation between the various prothrombin time assays, a discrepancy mainly due to problems with the purity of the thromboplastin (tissue factor) concentrate. The INR became widely accepted worldwide, especially after endorsement by the World Health Organization.
Read more about this topic: Prothrombin Time
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“What you don’t understand is that it is possible to be an atheist, it is possible not to know if God exists or why He should, and yet to believe that man does not live in a state of nature but in history, and that history as we know it now began with Christ, it was founded by Him on the Gospels.”
—Boris Pasternak (1890–1960)
“Let us not underrate the value of a fact; it will one day flower in a truth. It is astonishing how few facts of importance are added in a century to the natural history of any animal. The natural history of man himself is still being gradually written.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“One classic American landscape haunts all of American literature. It is a picture of Eden, perceived at the instant of history when corruption has just begun to set in. The serpent has shown his scaly head in the undergrowth. The apple gleams on the tree. The old drama of the Fall is ready to start all over again.”
—Jonathan Raban (b. 1942)