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Participant Poll: Who Uses TEG?

From Kim Kinney at Indiana University Medical Center (IU Health): Hi George. We are being asked to make the thromboelastograph (TEG) available in our special coag lab for clinical use. I am curious to poll others regarding the use of TEG, who is running the test, who is interpreting the results, etc. We have had the TEG available […]

Global Hemostasis Assays

Dabigatran and the iSTAT

From “SwimRose:” Hi George, We recently had a case in our ER of a stroke patient on Pradaxa giving an INR of 2.0 with ISTAT, but the main lab instrument, an IL ACL, gave 1.1. Please comment. Hello, and thank you for your question, which drove me to an early-morning search of theAbbott Diagnostics site for […]

Anticoagulant Therapy

Ecarin Clotting Time: Dr. Zuckerman

On April 29, Crystal Azavedo asked about laboratories that monitor dabigatran with the ecarin clotting time (ECT). Last week at the Thrombosis and Hemostasis Summit of North America I became reacquainted with long-time colleague, Dr. Leon Zuckerman, founder of Coagulation Consultants of Des Plaines, Illinois. Coagulation Consultants is a full-service hemostasis reference laboratory that also offers the ECT. It was good to see Dr. […]

Anticoagulant Therapy

More on Hemolysis: Dr. Marques

Here is a photo sent by my friend and colleague Marisa Marques, MD, director of the University of Alabama at Birmingham Hospital special coagulationand transfusion medicine laboratories. Her message was in response to the April 27 post on Hemolysis and the Heparin Anti-Xa by “Danagah.” The photo was taken in 2005 by special coagulation technologist Patti Tichenor of two specimens […]

Specimen Management

A Thorn Between Two Roses

Here’s a photo of George with Kelly Townsend (L) and Pamela Owens (R) in the exhibit at theThrombosis and Hemostasis Summit of North America. Kelly and Pam are frequent Fritsma Factor participants and leaders atTriCore Reference Laboratoriesof Albuquerque, NM.

IL Splits from Beckman-Coulter Effective 6/22/2012

Instrumentation Laboratory, part of the Werfen group, today announced it will terminate its hemostasis business relationship with Beckman-Coulter, Inc., effective June 22, 2012, and will initiate direct sales and service on June 23. Beckman-Coulter, Incorporated was recently purchased by the Danaher group. Attached is Beckman’s announcement of the IL decision. Beckman-Coulter IL Letter 5-7-2012

More on Mixing Studies: Dr. Ortel

We’ve had three posts and several comments regarding lupus anticoagulant (LA) mixing studies since March. These are… March 18, 2012: Test for LA When Mixing Study Corrects? March 22, 2012: Mixing Study Results: Long PT and PTT April 3, 2012: More on LA Mixing Studies In these posts several experts held that it is necessary […]

Lupus Anticoagulant

Reprise: Validating POC INRs

Back to our April 24 anticoagulation clinic manager’s question about when to validate a prolonged point of care (POC) prothrombin time with international normalized ratio (PT/INR). George spoke with representatives of Roche Diagnostics, distributor of Coag-U-Chek instruments, while attending the May 3–5 Thrombosis and Hemostasis Summit of North America meeting in Chicago. While Roche contends this is a local decision and […]

Anticoagulant Therapy

More on Aggregometer Validation

A big thank-you to Kathy Jacobs of Chrono-Log Corporation for her update on validation of aggregometry, added as a comment to

Platelet Function Testing

Mixing Studies: Do You Incubate?

Here is a message from Ms. Khaldee Lindsey Davenport-Landry (Lindsey), a graduate student in this spring’s University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey’s graduate course, CLSC 5124, Advanced Hemostasis. Lindsey is an experienced medical laboratory scientist; she asks about mixing studies: We do a rare mixing study at our hospital, and even more rare PTT mixing study. […]

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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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