A POC DTI Monitor

At the ASCLS/AACC meeting in July I had the opportunity to chat with Tonya Kiziah, MT (ASCP), Helena Laboratories, about Helena’s new hand-held Abrazo instrument, currently research use only, which offers a new point-of-care (POC) direct thrombin inhibitor (DTI) assay, DTM. DTM is a dry chemistry modification of the Ecarin clotting time that employs paramagnetic iron oxide particle technology, the same technology that is used on Helena’s Cascade POC instrument. The DTM method works with both fresh non-citrated and citrated whole blood, and is a sensitive measure of DTI therapy, including oral dabigatran. The Ecarin clotting time is relatively unaffected by heparin. It looks like the DTM may be the first POC method for monitoring DTIs, adding to the list of new assays under development for the new oral antithrombotics.