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Historical Ranges: CV% and RI

Here is a message from subscriber Dkaguni: “Historical ranges are often used to determine the range for coagulation assays. Are there general guidelines as to how large these ranges can be?” Hello, and thank you for your question. I’ll begin by assuming your question addresses internal assay precision, which is typically expressed as coefficient of […]

“Cheat Sheet” Distribution

With substantial assistance from Precision BioLogic staff, we’ve begun monthly distributions of our “Cheat Sheet” summaries. If you are a Fritsma Factor participant, you should have received your first “edition” on Tuesday, April 6. If you did not receive the summary and would like to, please e-mail me at [email protected].

High Molecular Weight Kininogen Deficiency

A message from Kim Kinney at Clarian: Hi George, I am giving a case study presentation and one of the studies is about a woman who had a homozygous HMWK (Fitzgerald factor) deficiency. While we were working her up we read in a reference about the Fletcher factor (PK) screening test where you incubate patient […]

2009 Whole Blood Aggregometry Article Considered for Award

In the spirit of self-promotion, the article Dave McGlasson and I prepared last year,McGlasson DL, Fritsma GA: Whole blood platelet aggregometry and platelet function testing. Semin Thromb Hemost 2009;35:168-80 placed 26th in the running for the editors’ Eberhard Mammen award. The award is based on the number of article downloads over a two-year period, and our […]

Diagnostica Stago Offers Flow-based Hemostasis Markers

I had the pleasure of meeting and speaking with Paul Riley, PhD, Manager of Research Use Products, Diagnostica Stago, Inc., New Jersey. Paul said that Stago is now partnering with the advanced research and development company BioCytex to market ready to use flow cytometric assays for hemostasis diagnosis. They can now identify P2Y12 occupancy via […]

Blood Collection Through a Heparin Port

Here is a question from ML Drejka, St. Barnabas Medical Center, West Orange, NJ: Hi, Will citrated blood from a heparinized port be acceptable for a euglobulin clot lysis test? Thanks. Hello, ML Drejka, and thank you for your question. The short answer is no, you should collect the specimen from a site separate from […]

Quick Question Summary: Applicator Sticks

Here is a summary of our February Quick Question, “How do you examine coagulation specimens for clots?” a. We run an applicator stick through each specimen before centrifuging: 10 (17%) b. We run an applicator stick through specimens from certain units in our medical center: 2 (3%) c. We examine the specimen visually before and […]

Cutoffs for Bethesda Titers

From Bob Dahms, Coagulation Technical Specialist, Long Beach Memorial (first-time user): I am looking for literature to contraindicate performing factor VIII inhibitor screening and Bethesda titers. I restrict orders for both unless the patient has a factor VIII <20%. Also, post-treatment factor VIII levels of 40-50% have questionable Bethesda titer interpretation. Screening a 9:1 mix […]

Local INR Calibration: Still a Dream

From Julie Tange, Developmental Technologist at Mayo Medical Laboratories: Hi George, our lab recently brought up calibration of the INR/ISI again. I know this was a hot topic a couple of years ago and CLSI came up with a document providing guidelines. I had heard at that time that a couple of companies were developing calibrator […]

Trinity Bio-Tech Coagulation Business Sold to Stago

Trinity Bio-Tech of Dublin, Ireland announced Thursday, March 11 the sale of their coagulation business, including manufacture of their Destiny Max coagulometer to Diagnostica Stago, Incorporated of Asnieres, France.

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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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