Thrombophilia

Lupus Anticoagulant Testing

Maureen (Mo) Tacke, St. Luke’s Health System, sent this case. A woman who had experienced one normal fetus loss at longer than 10 weeks’ gestation and one unexplained spontaneous miscarriage at shorter than 10 weeks’ gestation but no additional thrombotic episodes had the following results: Initial: DRVVT ratio: 1.70 (limit 1.20); silica clot time ratio […]

Lupus Anticoagulant

Hex-phase Phospholipid Approval

This news just arrived on Tuesday February 25, 2020. Precision BioLogic’s new CRYOcheck Hex LA™ kit has been approved for use in Canada, the EU, Australia and New Zealand. Congratualtions to PBI, and again, please be sure to attend the poster presentation at the Chicago THSNA meeting.

Hex-phase Phospholipid Reagent

The Thrombosis and Hemostasis Summit of North America (THSNA) convenes in Chicago Thursday, April 23 to Saturday April 25. Fritsma Factor’s sponsor, Precision BioLogic Inc, Halifax, NS, and Affinity Biologicals, Inc,Toronto, ON will occupy booth 401. From 9:45 to 10:30 on Thursday, presenters will be located near their posters including the following poster developed by […]

More on D-dimer Reporting

Continuing in our D-dimer discussion, click or tap to read “Raising D-dimer Threshold Cuts Need for Chest Imaging by 30% in Suspected Pulmonary Embolism.” This article appears in the January/February issue of Clinical Laboratory News and refers to Kearon C, de Wit K, Parpia S, et al. Diagnosis of Pulmonary Embolism with d-Dimer Adjusted to […]

D-dimer Reporting Issues

Click or tap here for a January, 2020 Karen Titus CAP Today feature article on concerns around D-dimer assay reporting. The article focuses on unit variation, including FEUs versus DDUs, appropriate usage in ruling out DVT and PE, and emergency department turn-around times. Contributors include Kristin Lundy, MLS, Vermont; Drs. Andrew Goodwin, Vermont; Karen Moser, […]

Thrombotic Microangiopathic Anemias 10-16-19

George presented “Von Willebrand Factor, both Friend and Foe“, a talk focused on the role of von Willebrand factor in the thrombotic microangiopathies at the Northeast Laboratory Conference, Portland, Maine, on Wednesday, October 16, 2019. Click the title for the presentation handout.

Platelet Function Testing

More on Venous Thoracic Outlet Syndrome

George draws your attention to our June 27, 2019 entry describing venous thoracic outlet syndrome afflicting an athletic friend. Our frequent contributor and hemostasis scholar Dr. Vadim Kostousov today, July 24, 2019, provided a seriss of references to VTOS in unusual circumstances.

FVL and AC Therapy

From friend, colleague, and frequent contributor Dave McGlasson: A friend contacted me about if her should be put on an anticoagulant. He is a 71 year old male who in 2004 suffered a DVT. A subsequent work-up revealed he possessed a heterozygous factor V Leiden mutation. At the time of the clot he had been […]

Anticoagulant Therapy

Quick Question: TTP Laboratory Assay

Our June, 2019 Quick Question generated a near-unanimous response from 68 voters: What laboratory assay confirms thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP)? Shiga toxin test: 3% (2) Complement C3 level: 7% (5) ADAMTS13 activity: 83% (56) VWF multimers: 7% (5) The Shiga toxin test correlates to Shiga toxin-induced hemolytic-uremic syndrome (ST-HUS), the “classic” HUS detected mainly in […]

Arterial Thrombosis

Venous Thoracic Outlet Syndrome

I (Geo) recently learned of an acquaintance who has developed venous thoracic outlet syndrome (VTOS), also termed “effort thrombosis” or more formally, Paget-Schroetter syndrome. This is thrombosis of the axilosubclavian vein where the vein passes by the junction of the clavicle and first rib. VTOS is rare, and is seen in athletes, for example, baseball […]

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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

Quick Question