From Gretchen Schaef Johns, M.D., Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, FL: Is Ecarin available in the US and is the Ecarin clotting time (or the newer Stago Ecarin chromogenic test) research use only? Someone told me that you can’t get Ecarin in the US currently. Thanks. Thanks for your question, Dr. Johns. As you indicate, Diagnostica Stago has […]

I received a question through the American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science (ASCLS) Consumer Forum, from whence come many thorny hemostasis questions. This question was forwarded by Prof. Bernadette Rodak of Indiana University. I’ll quote (with edits for brevity), but have masked the consumer’s identity: “I had a cerebral thrombosis in March 2009 at the age of […]

From “Ipaz” at Iline Microsystems: For the plasma dilute thrombin time, why is the patient plasma diluted with normal pool plasma and not with saline solution? Thank you for your question. The dilute thrombin time is currently produced by Hyphen BioMed and marketed in North American by Aniara as their Direct Thrombin Inhibitors assay. The assay is designed to monitor the efficacy of dabigatran, […]