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February 2025 Quick Question: FXIII Deficiency

Our February 2025 QQ was a quiz that asked, “What factor deficiency is associated with poor wound healing?” The question attracted 60 participants who answered… FII: 4 (7%) FV: 5 (8%) FVIII: 9 (15%) FIX: 3 (4%) FXIII: 39 (65%) The large majority is correct. Here is the abstract from Luyendyk JP, Flick MJ, Wolberg AS. […]

Bleeding Disorders

New CAP Survey Coag POC Requirements

Click POC CAP Coag Requirements 1-25 to read about the CAP Survey updates to point-of-care specimen management featuring Andrew Goodwin, MD, medical director of the thrombosis and hemostasis laboratory, and Marian Rollins-Raval, MD, PhD; chief of the Division of Hematopathology and Genomic Medicine both at the University of Vermont Medical Center.

Specimen Management

PT/INR Harmonization

Here is an open-access January 2025 publication that describes an organization-wide PT/INR harmonization effort. Click on the reference to obtain the article: Favaloro EJ, Arunachalam S, Chapman K, Pasalic L. Continued harmonization of the international normalized ratio across a large laboratory network: Evidence of sustained low interlaboratory variation and bias after a change in instrumentation. […]

Anticoagulant Therapy

Lab Monitoring For a Patient Transitioning From DOAC to Heparin

From Jessica Warner, MLS (ASCP)cm Technical Specialist Network Coagulation Service Lab Administration Kettering Health Hi George, Has there been much discussion on what sites are using for lab monitoring for patients transitioning from DOAC to heparin? We have strictly been using anti-Xa for heparin monitoring since 2015. We are a 13-site network with 8 hospitals […]

Anticoagulant Therapy

February 2025 Cheat Sheet

Click Cheat Sheet 2-1-25 to see your February 2025 Fritsma Factor Cheat Sheet. Your personal cheat sheet will land in your inbox after February 4, 2025, and if you would like to join our Cheat Sheet mailing list, please go to the Cheat Sheet signup list in the right-hand column of Fritsma Factor.

February 2025 QQ: Poor Wound Healing

Our February 2025 Quick Question is a quiz that asks “What factor deficiency is associated with poor wound healing?” You may answer on the right and if convenient, add your comments below and watch for the results on or after March 1.

January 2025 Quick Question: PFA 100/200

Our January 2025 Quick Question asked: “To test for platelet function, how do you report PFA-100/200 collagen-epi (CEPI) and collagen-ADP (CADP) results?” Here are the responses from 35 participants: CEPI only, Neg/Pos: 1 (3%) CEPI only, CT seconds: 2 (6%) CEPI & CADP, Neg/Pos: 3 (9%) CEPI & CADP, CT: 23 (66%) We use the […]

Quick Question Archive

Multi-site Validation of the ACT and TEG

From Rachel Donner: “Hello, George. I am a POC consultant at Maine Medical Center in Portland, ME. My department has had difficulty finding guidelines for best practices for instrument-to-instrument comparisons on our ACT and TEG programs. Currently, we have 19 Medtronic ACT Plus and 4 TEG 6s (and only 2 POC consultants at this location, […]

Bleeding Disorders

Elevated Protein C and Protein S

This question arrived on Wednesday, January 15, 2025, from Soha Abuelela: “I have a protein C level above 150% and a protein S level above 200%. What is the interference and significance?” We assay for protein C and protein S deficiency when a person has experienced an unprovoked venous thromboembolism (VTE, clotting) event such as […]

Platelet Clumping

I received this question on Friday, January 17, 2025: “Hello, where can I find guidance or literature on using sodium citrate tubes to mitigate platelet clumping?” Thank you for your question. This question was partially addressed in a March 11, 2024 post entitled Platelet Satellitism, however, I’ve attached two open-access articles that are helpful. First […]

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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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