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Bleeding Time Efficacy

From George’s Birmingham colleague, Vicki Cardone: We are trying to discontinue bleeding times! I have spoken to Helena PlateletWorks about their method and they said it will not pick up VWD or Glanzmann thrombasthenia. Do you know of anything to replace BT? We don’t want to use PFA. Thank you, Vicki. Hi, Vicki. I encourage […]

Bleeding Disorders

The 100th Anniversary of Heparin 1916–2016

On behalf of Dr. Jawed Fareed, the Loyola University Chicago Office of Continuing Medical Education extends an invititation to the Heparin Centennial Symposium: Scientific and Clinical Developments and their Impact on the Understanding of the Pathogenesis of Thrombosis and Its Management. The conference will be held in the Center for Translational Research and Education on […]

Anticoagulant Therapy

Intermittent Bleeding, Normal Coags

From Dr. Samir Patel: George, I was wondering if I could get some input from you or any of the other readers regarding a patient in my clinic. This is a 52 year old woman with history of multiple surgeries (dental, orthopedic) and with mixed history of intraoperative bleeding, late bleeding, and no bleeding. She […]

Bleeding Disorders

Bangor Presentations

George was in beautiful Bangor, Maine, Monday, September 12, where he provided two presentations for regional medical laboratory scientists, sponsored in part by Dahl-Chase Diagnostic Services. Handouts for George’s talks are provided below. Please click or tap if you would like to have the handouts. Measuring the DOACs, Whatever Happened to the PT and PTT? […]

Anticoagulant Therapy

New Quick Question: Hemolysis

Please check out and answer our new Quick Question, “How do you manage hemostasis specimens with visible hemolysis?”

Quick Question Archive

Quick Question Results: Bethesda Titers

The results of our latest Quick Question are in with 87 responses.. How does your laboratory measure factor inhibitors? Standard Bethesda assay: 33% (26) Bethesda titer using buffered pH 7.4 pooled normal plasma: 9% (8) Nijmegen Bethesda assay using factor-depelted plasma as diluent: 9% (8) CDC modification of Nimegen Bethesda assay: 0% (0) Bethesda chromogenic […]

Bleeding Disorders

IL Acquires ROTEM

Mr. Dean Willett, Precision BioLogic Inc. Director of Marketing and Business Development passed along the news that Instrumentation Laboratory, Inc, (IL) a Werfen company, today acquired CA Casyso AG (Basel, Switzerland) and its Tem subsidiaries (Tem), manufacturer of the ROTEM Delta and ROTEM Sigma rotational thromboelastometry instruments. Click or tap here for IL‘s press release.

World Thrombosis Day 2016

World Thrombosis Day is October 13, 2016, less than a month away. Please select World Thrombosis Day for complete information on this important event.

Specimens with Hematocrit >55%

From Michelle Fahs, MT (ASCP), Clinical Laboratory Educator, Mercy Hospital St. Louis School of CLS. George, Do you have any recommendations on how the sample should be collected for coag testing if the patient’s hematocrit is >55%? We have in our policy the formula and procedure for adjusting the amount of anticoagulant in the tube […]

Specimen Management

How Many QC Repetitions?

From Heather DeVries at Indiana University Health. Hello George! In a system meeting recently, our procedure for evaluating new lot calibrator material was discussed. Currently, we require sites to run 5 points of QC after calibrating with a new lot. If the mean of those 5 points is within 20% of the established mean, we […]

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George Fritsma is a medical laboratory scientist, educator, and author. George is a member of the International Society on Thrombosis and Hemostasis, the International Society for Laboratory Hematology, and the American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science.

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