Journal
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF CLINICAL PATHOLOGY
Volume 126, Issue 5, Pages 748-755Publisher
AMER SOC CLINICAL PATHOLOGY
DOI: 10.1309/03FK3378YTRA1FRF
Keywords
prothrombin time; PT; activated partial thromboplastin time; aPTT; coagulation; hemolysis
Categories
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Hemolyzed specimens are rejected for coagulation testing based on concerns of artifactual interference. Prothrombin time (PT), activated partial thromboplastin time (aPTT), and selected factor assay test results for consecutive pairs of hemolyzed and subsequently re-collected (mean, 72 minutes later) nonhemolyzed patient specimens were compared. Specimens from healthy human subjects were subjected to mechanically induced hemolysis, and PT and aPTT results compared with concurrently drawn nonhemolyzed control samples. In 50 paired patient specimens, there were statistically significant differences in PT (15.8 +/- 8.4 vs 16.3 +/- 8.7 seconds, P < .0 1) and aPTT (31.6 +/- 18 vs 32.5 +/- 19 seconds, P < .01) between hemolyzed and nonhemolyzed specimens, respectively. Specimens from healthy subjects showed no difference in PT and a minor difference in aPTT A policy of rejecting hemolyzed specimens for coagulation tests should be revisited because the observed difference, when present, is unlikely to be considered clinically meaningful.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available