The use of whole blood gene expression to derive diagnostic biomarkers capable of distinguishing between phenotypically similar diseases holds great promise but remains a challenge. Differential gene expression analysis is used to identify the key genes that undergo changes in expression relative to healthy individuals, as well as to patients with other diseases. These key genes can act as diag...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW The landscape of genetic diagnostic testing has changed dramatically with the introduction of next-generation clinical exome sequencing (CES), which provides an unbiased analysis of all protein-coding sequences in the roughly 21,000 genes in the human genome. Use of this testing, however, is currently limited in clinical neurologic practice by the lack of a framework for appro...

hypercoagulable states are a group of conditions associated with an enhanced tendency toward blood clotting. although usual clinical manifestations of hypercoagulable states are thrombotic events such as deep venous thrombosis, hematoma can also occurs as a result of hypercoagulability in some patients. several inherited or acquired conditions may lead to hypercoagulable states. some of them in...

Thromboelastography (TEG) has been used in experimental animal studies since the early 1960s and in a routine clinical setting for the past decade. From the data currently available, it is clear that both the scope and limitations of TEG in animals resemble those observed in humans. TEG has been used to diagnose hypercoagulability in animals with disseminated intravascular coagulation, various ...

Prothrombin is determined with the aid of a recently developed assay, based on the amidolysis of a chromogenic substrate. The assay proved to be reliable when it was compared with more conventional coagulation assays in the control of oral anticoagulant therapy, both in the therapeutic range and in a case of overdosage. As is the case in coagulation tests, heparin therapy remains a disturbing c...

BACKGROUND Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) is a life-saving modality used in the management of cardiopulmonary failure that is refractory to conventional medical and surgical therapies. The major problems clinicians face are bleeding and clotting, which can occur simultaneously. To discern the impact of pulmonary injury and ECMO on the host's haemostatic response, we developed an ovi...

BACKGROUND Orthotopic liver transplantation can be associated with haemorrhage, particularly in patients with severe liver dysfunction. We assessed the value of rotation thromboelastometry (ROTEM) to monitor coagulation in the operating theatre, its correlation with routine laboratory findings, and its ability to guide platelet (Plt) and fibrinogen (Fg) transfusion. METHODS Twenty-three patie...

We report a study on the importance of factor IX activation in thromboplastin-dependent coagulation in plasma. Diluted, CaCl2-containing thromboplastin solutions at constant phospholipid concentration were used to trigger the coagulation in plasma from patients with congenital factor IX and factor VIII deficiency in the presence and absence of added factors IX and VIII, and the generation of th...