Wednesday, researchers reported that they were testing a new system aimed at regulating the proper dose of the blood thinner warfarin, which would help doctors prevent the occurrence of blood clots and major bleeding.

The study showed that some patients needed more than twice the weekly dose than others, while the test would give rise to a better prediction of the necessary dose for patients individually.

Blood thinner warfarin, which is marketed under several brand names including Coumadin, is based on rat poison and can be used to prevent the development of blood clots.

Nevertheless, determining the right dose is vital, since a dose that is too high could lead to a patient bleeding to death, whereas a too low one could give rise to strokes or heart attacks due to the forming of blood clots.

The study was conducted by an international research team that was led by Dr. Teri Klein of Stanford University in California and involved gathering clinical and genetic information from 4,043 patients, which was used to generate a computer algorithm aimed at determining the correct dose that a patient needs.

The method used falls into the category of pharmacogenetics, which entails using patient's genetic variations in order to predict the way he or she would react to various drugs.

The research was published in the New England Journal of Medicine, the team having said that they had tested their algorithm on 1,009 other people.

Annually in the United States, approximately 30 million prescriptions for the blood thinner warfarin are issued.