Anticoagulant Therapy

Quick Question Correction

You may have noticed that our September, 2017 Quick Question contained an error: How do you assay for direct oral anti-Xa antithrombotics like dabigatran? Dabigatran, of course, is an oral direct thrombin inhibitor, not a direct anti-Xa inhibitor. This error was George’s, not Dave’s. Thanks to Dr. Emannuel Favaloro, who wrote: just advising that your […]

Anticoagulant Therapy

September QQ: DOAC Assay

Our September, 2017 Quick Question asks, How do you assay for direct oral anti-Xa antithrombotics such as rivaroxaban? The question, provided by friend and colleague, Dave McGlasson, also applies to apixaban, betrixaban, and edoxaban, all FDA-approved oral anti-Xa antithrombotics. What has never been approved is the chromogenic anti-Xa assay, despite release of calibrators and controls […]

Anticoagulant Therapy

POC and Plasma-based PTs

From Jake Fray, MLS, Denver Health POC Coordinator via Joan Polancic, MLS, Denver Health School of Medical Laboratory Science. We are having major issues with our point of care Coaguchek devices not correlating with our main lab Stago results.The pharmacists that use the Coagucheks for their outpatient anti-coag testing are getting pretty upset that there […]

Anticoagulant Therapy

Hemolysis and Heparin Assay

Frequent contributor Dave McGlasson called from the American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science annual meeting venue in San Diego. He has just heard this question from a colleague. “Can you use the chromogenic anti-Xa heparin assay when the specimen is hemolyzed or icteric?” Her concern arose from cases in which patients had been treated with […]

Anticoagulant Therapy

Betrixaban (Bevyxxa) Approved June 23

The FDA approved Portola’s anti-Xa direct oral anticoagulant Betrixaban as Bevyxxa on June 23, 2017. Click or tap here for the FDA announcement and here for Portola’s press release, indications, and prescribing information. Thanks to Dr. Ali Sadeghi-Khomami of Precision BioLogic for sending along the announcement.

Anticoagulant Therapy

Eliquis Recall due to Mislabeling

Thanks for a heads-up from Dave McGlasson, here is a recall notice from Bristol-Myers Squibb regarding Eliquis tablets whose dosage level was mislabeled.

Anticoagulant Therapy

DOAC Review

Click here for an excellent MedScape review on the DOACs.

Anticoagulant Therapy

Heparin Response Curve

From Maureen Tacke, Idaho; Hi George, my colleagues and I enjoy the Fratsma Factor postings you send. Thank you for the work that you do instilling best practice across the nation. Each year at the PTT lot change, we redo the heparin response curve. We’ve done this to follow practices from years prior. We’ve noted […]

Anticoagulant Therapy

Anticoagulation in Renal Dialysis

A hypothetical case study: a patient whose birthdate was 9-20-1945 had ESRD and non-valvular atrial fibrillation. He had been on renal dialysis since 2011 and had been taking Coumadin since 2005, maintaining an INR of 2.7, even after dialysis was initiated. In the summer of 2014 he experienced a soft-tissue bleed, prompting his nephrologist to […]

Anticoagulant Therapy

Unable to Obtain Dimer Result on Xarelto

From Heather DeVries, Indiana University Health. Hi George! We use the DDHS kit from IL on our TOP series instruments. There is a cancer patient at one of our facilities who has not been able to get a dimer result while on Xarelto. From the error codes, it looks like it would be human anti-mouse […]

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.

Cheat Sheets from George

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