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ACT Validation

Here is a question from Mary Rozmanc in Sunnybrook: Hi, George, I will be evaluating two vendor ACT devices. Is there any information you have or that you can point me to to help me set up a proper evaluation? The reference instrument will be the Medtronic ACT II. I would like to know what […]

Dr. Dot Adcock in January CAP Today

I’m proud to see the January issue of CAP Today features Dr. Dorothy (Dot) Adcock, Director of Esoterix Laboratory Services, Englewood, CO. Beside highlighting Dot’s career, the article contains valuable tips on mixing studies, von Willebrand disease testing profiles, and global clotting assay. Geo.

Hypothermia and Anticoagulant Monitoring

Here is a question sent to Kim Kinney from a Clarian Pharm D: I’ve got a great question and I hope you can help. We are using more and more induced hypothermia for cardiac arrest, and will especially see this increase as our regionalization for MI program gets up to speed. So if someone is […]

Cold Agglutinins

Rita Burns sent me this message on January 8: How do you handle a strong cold agglutinin for coagulation testing? This particular sample generated dye errors on the Biomerieux (Trinity Biotech, Inc) MDA180. After warming the sample on the unit, we were able to retrieive results with no error flags, but we are still concerned […]

Specimen Hemolysis and D-dimer Elevation

This question arrived January 8 from Twyla Bader MT (ASCP), Heme/Coag Supervisor at St. Joseph Hospital, Bellingham WA: We use Diagnostica Stago’s STA Compact analyzers and their LIA D-dimer reagent. Their package insert states there is no interference by hemolysis up to 5.0 g/L HGB. We did find a discrepancy between a hemolyzed sample and […]

StaClot-LA on ACL-TOP

Larry Smith at Memorial Sloan-Kettering asks, anyone out there running Stago’s Sta-Clot LAs on the ACL-TOPS instrument? Please respond here and to Larry [email protected].

Does the ACT Monitor Low Molecular Weight Heparin?

I received a question last Friday asking whether the activated clotting time assay (ACT) is affected by low molecular weight heparin such as Lovenox. Yes, but first… …For readers under forty, the ACT has been around for many years, and is based on an even older test I learned as the Lee-White clotting time. This […]

A Daunting Task: Validating 13 New Analyzers

Kim Kinney at Indiana University Medical Center (and Clarian) wrote: Hi George, We are about to validate our new Beckman Coulter coag equipment. We will have three TOP analyzers at our central lab and ten Elites at our beltways, north and west hospitals and our ED lab. We will have all 13 pieces of equipment here […]

Global Assays: Calibrated Automated Thrombogram (CAT)

I meant to mention in a previous post Stago-US is marketing a global hemostasis system called the Calibrated Automated Thrombogram (CAT) from Thermo Electron Corp. And another called ROTEM. I saw one of the CATs at the ASH meeting in Atlanta this past December… These instruments seem particularly popular among surgeons. Donna Castellone at Mt. […]

Hemolyzed, Lipemic, and Icteric Specimens

Kim Kinney of the Indiana University Medical Center (Clarian) lab writes: We are getting ready to switch from the BioMerieux MDA to the Beckman Coulter TOPS and I was wondering how labs are now handling specimens that are hemolyzed, lipemic, or icteric. We have had the MDAs for six years and I will miss their […]

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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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