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Quick Question: Pradaxa Measurement

Glen Holloway asks if it was possible to add “in-house dilute thrombin time” to the current Quick Question list. George promised to update this in July, and will finally keep his promise. The current Quick Question was: The new oral anticoagulants are being used more and more. How do you plan to measure dabigatran (Pradaxa) levels? […]

Anticoagulant Therapy

Marshall Thompson

Dorothy (Adcock) Funk, MD, Medical Director at Colorado Coagulation, which is affiliated with LabCorp, Inc, sent along the sad news that Marshall Thompson, Special Coagulation Manager at the Burlington, NC laboratory, passed away on Tuesday, September 17. Here is a link to Mr. Thompson’s Burlington Times-News death notice. Thanks to Dr. Adcock for providing the information, and our […]

Antibodies to Bovine Thrombin

From Manju Bala, St Christopher’s Hospital for Children. Need help with interpreting a coagulation dilemma. A child, 4 months old, post cardiac surgery, no meds, use of bovine thrombin during surgery with prolonged prothrombin time (PT), 29.9s; partial thromboplastin time (PTT, APTT),107.7s; and thrombin time (TT), 40.4s; no correction on mixing. FII, 25%; FV, 7%, increasing with […]

Coagulation Factors

Accuracy of an INR of 10.0

From Eleonor Arellano: Thank you for presenting a very informative seminar, “Whatever Happened to the PT and PTT?” about the new anticoagulants last Friday at Rancho Mirage. Our ER physician is requesting the laboratory to increase the reporting of international normalized ratio (INR) of ER patients up to 10.0 INR. What are your thoughts about that? […]

Anticoagulant Therapy

Check AT Before Starting Heparin?

George,would it be better to check the patient’s antithrombin III (AT III, antithrombin, AT) level before starting unfractionated heparin (UFH)? Regards, Frances Weekes. Hi, Frances, thanks for the question, and while I’d be happy to invite other opinions from our participants, I would not recommend screening for AT levels on everyone starting unfractionated heparin for the […]

Anticoagulant Therapy

Ferritin and Prolonged PT/PTT?

From Natalie Shorey, Stago, Inc. Regional Manager, Sydney, Australia: This clinical case & related question came from the scientists at St George Hospital, one of our teaching hospitals here in Sydney. It prompted some discussion when I put it to other scientists, withour coming to any conclusion so I thought I’d pose the question to you. A patient […]

Coagulation Factors

Genotyping for Clopidogrel may not Work

A September 4, 2013 release from the European Society of Cardiology congress held in Amsterdam describes data from the ARCTIC-GENE study illustrating that genotyping for metabolic polymorphisms provides no improvement in clopidogrel therapy outcomes. You can read more in this linked Heart.com article.

Antiplatelet Therapy

Dr. Silvia Pierangeli

Most of us are already aware that we lost Dr. Silvia Pierangeli on Wednesday, August 28, 2013. Here is the announcement from her institution: I am deeply saddened to share that University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston faculty member, Dr. Silvia Pierangeli. Dr. Pierangeli was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She is survived by her husband, two […]

Business News

Attached is some business news about Pentapharm, CenterChem, Inc, and Enzyme Research Laboratories: Centerchem Notice

Anticoagulants and Ketogenic Diet

From Maria Jose Lauria: I would like to know if you have any experience in patients with oral anticoagulants and ketogenic diet given to patient with seizures. Hello, and thank you for yet another fascinating question. I have no experience with anticoagulation in association with the ketogenic diet in seizure disorders. A literature search reveals a […]

Anticoagulant Therapy

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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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