George, we had a patient recently who was on Autoplex and his Dr. ordered a PTT. I am not familiar with Autoplex, can you give me some information or direct me to a website? Thank you.
Yvonne Ellis MT (ASCP)
Bedford Regional Medical Center
Hi, Yvonne. Great question. Autoplex T (Nabi, Inc) is an activated prothrombin complex concentrate, a competitor to Baxter’s FEIBA (factor eight inhibitor bypassing activity), and to Novo Nordisk’s NovoSeven (recombinant factor VIIa). All three are used for boys and men with hemophilia A (factor VIII deficiency) who have developed a factor VIII inhibitor, are bleeding, and are refractory to factor VIII concentrate therapy. Because Autoplex T and FEIBA contain activated factors IIa, VIIa, IXa and Xa, they raise the risk of DIC, so there are limits placed upon their dosages. NovoSeven does not cause DIC, but it is strikingly more expensive.
There are no laboratory assays that can monitor the plasma activity of Autoplex T, FEIBA, or NovoSeven, but physicians typically order the PTT, which shortens to near the reference interval as coagulation normalizes. The normalizing PTT predicts the cessation of bleeding. I’ve attached a link to Nabi’s package insert below. Geo.
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