Anticoagulant Therapy

Stable Dabigatran Levels in Anticoagulation Clinic Patieents

This abstract was presented as a poster at the American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science annual meeting, Atlanta, July, 2015: McGlasson DL, Fritsma GA. Stable Dabigatran Levels in Anticoagulation Clinic Patients: An Unexpected Finding. Clin Lab Sci 2015; 28:159. The dabigatran effect is rapid. Its half-life is 12–17 hours. Experts believe missed doses may lead […]

Anticoagulant Therapy

Blood Coagulation and Fibrinolysis Publication

Announcing our latest publication, McGlasson DL, Fritsma GA. Measuring dabigatran with the dilute Russell viper venom confirm assay in an anticoagulation clinic population. Blood Coagul Fibrinolysis. 2015 Aug 7. [Epub ahead of print].

Anticoagulant Therapy

Rivaroxaban in Diabetes

Here is a current Heartwire announcement about the use of Rivaroxaban in diabetics. The data for this outcome is derived from the ROCKET-AF study.

Anticoagulant Therapy

Idarucizumab for Dabigatran Reversal

Melissa Thomas at Boehringer Ingelheim sent a press release about the report of their phase III trial, Idarucizumab for Dabigatran Reversal. The free full text article, Pollack CV, Reliiy PA, Eikelboom J, et al. Idarucizumab for dabigatran reversal, NEJM 2015, DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa1502000, is available from the NEJM web site.

Anticoagulant Therapy

Dabigatran Reversal Agent

In a report given at the International Society for Thrombosis and Haemostasis biennial meeting in Toronto, Dr. Charles Pollack indicated that a trial of the Boehringer-Ingelheim drug idarucizumab safely and effectively reversed the effects of dabigatran. To see the full report, select Dabigatran Reversal Agent RE-VERSE AD on Heartwire.

Anticoagulant Therapy

Thrombin Time Technique

From Monali Gupta MD, Toronto General Hospital: Hi George, I compliment you for creating such a wonderful website to understand and learn coagulation. The modules are very educative. I have two questions about the DTI assay described in Module 28, Thrombin Time Assay. Why patients’s plasma is diluted in 1:8 or 1:20 in saline? Why pipetting has […]

Anticoagulant Therapy

DVT with Thrombocytopenia

Here is a case that George heard about on Saturday, May 16. An ultrasound revealed two blood clots in a man’s leg. After two days on Coumadin and Lovenox (LMWH) his platelet count was 4,000/uL so his doctor discontinued the Coumadin. The man had been previously diagnosed with ITP and his doctor wants to arrange […]

Anticoagulant Therapy

NSAIDS Raise Bleeding Risk Post-MI

Heartwire reviews a Februay 24 JAMA report indicating that AMI patients on DAPT who use NSAIDs double their risk of bleeding and secondary cardiovascular events. Read about it in Medscape.

Anticoagulant Therapy

Mixing Studies on Anticoagulation

From Dr. King: We are encountering with increasing frequency requests from hematologists to perform mixing studies on patients that are known to be on some form of anticoagulation. My question is regarding the utility of doing such testing. Another aspect to the question is whether you can do testing for a prolonged PTT when the […]

Anticoagulant Therapy

Rivaroxaban Side-Effects

I spoke with an acquaintance who started on rivaroxaban (Xarelto) a few weeks ago for DVT therapy. He reported transient cognition changes such as slowed speech that resolved when he discontinued the drug. Has any of our subscribers experienced or heard reports of this?

Anticoagulant Therapy

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George Fritsma is a medical laboratory scientist, educator, and author. George holds faculty appointments with Rutgers University and Michigan State University, and is a member of the International Society on Thrombosis and Hemostasis, American Association of Clinical Chemists, and American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science.

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