George:
We are getting a lot of questions about monitoring Pradaxa (dabigatran) and it keeps coming back to the Ecarin clotting time (ECT). Do you know of any POC testing kit or instrument that could be used to monitor this drug’s effect on a patient’s clotting?
Thanks,
Terry Black
Teresa Black, MT(ASCP)
Senior Medical Technologist
Coagulation Laboratory
Orlando Regional Medical Center
Hi, Terry, and thank you for your question. Here is a link to a message from Judy Miller posted on November 24 describing Hyphen Biomed’s new Thrombin Inhibitorassay for direct thrombin inhibitors, which Hyphen claims is linear for dabigatran measurement. They also report that prothrombin time, partial thromboplastin time, and Ecarin time are not linear.
I know of no point of care instrument available for dabigatran monitoring just now, and speculate that maybe one of the prothrombin time point of care instruments could be modified to monitor dabigatran as the market grows. Does anyone know of a point of care procedure?
Aniara Diagnostica has a complete system for testing Dabigat
Aniara Diagnostica has a complete system for testing Dabigatran. This was developed for Boehringer Ingelheim in partnership with Hyphen BioMed. You will need the Hemoclot Thrombin Inhibitor kit with our Dabigatran calibrator and controls you can go to our dabigatrantesting.com website for more info. This assay covers the whole therapeutic range and has a very good curve. This assay is not affected by plasma factor deficiencies. This assay works for all DTIs including Argatroban and Hirudin.
Jonas Kingo
VP Aniara
Hi Joe,
Diagnostica Stago also has a solution for dabigatra
Hi Joe,
Diagnostica Stago also has a solution for dabigatran called the Ecarin Chromogenic Assay (ECA). It is a research use only chromogenic assay that is an enhancement of the ECT and which can be read on any instrument reporting 405 nm. However, we do not have specific controls and calibrators for dabigatran at the present time, though we do have argatroban, bivalirudin, and hirudin controls & calibrators.
Paul Riley, PhD
Manager, RUO products
Diagnostica Stago, Inc.