Background: Bleeding assessment tools are key components in the evaluation of patients suspicious for bleeding disorders. The exact determination of the normal ranges of ISTH-BAT (International Society on Thrombosis and Hemostasis –Bleeding Assessment Tool) in the healthy population is a crucial step for determining who needs to be referred for further coagulation laboratory examinations. We ai...

Major waterborne cryptosporidiosis and giardiasis outbreaks associated with contaminated drinking water have been linked to evidence of suboptimal treatment. Cryptosporidium parvum oocysts are particularly more resistant than Giardia lamblia cysts to removal and inactivation by conventional water treatment (coagulation, sedimentation, filtration and chlorine disinfection); therefore, extensive ...

The direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) have now supplanted vitamin K antagonists (VKAs) for the treatment of venous thromboembolism (VTE). The DOACs include dabigatran, which inhibits thrombin, and rivaroxaban, apixaban, and edoxaban, which inhibit factor Xa. The DOACs are as effective for the prevention of recurrence as conventional VTE treatment, consisting of a parenteral anticoagulant follo...

Doses of oral anticoagulants in 50 patients on long term treatment were easily and satisfactorily monitored over six months by an automated chromogenic assay of prothrombin (CPA). It is suggested that chromogenic assay of one or more of the vitamin K dependent coagulation factors would provide a readily standardised alternative to those conventional tests which depend on human brain derived rea...

metry (‘ROTEM’) are used increasingly in cardiac and liver surgery to evaluate clotting factor deficiencies and platelet dysfunction. 7 Both monitor viscoelastic properties of whole blood as it is induced to clot in a low-shear environment (resembling sluggish venous flow) and provide valuable information on haemostasis from initiation to fibrinolysis. Our case illustrates the limitations that ...

In contrast to vitamin K antagonists, no routine coagulation monitoring is required in patients taking non-vitamin-K oral anticoagulants (NOACs). However, dosing must take into account factors such as patient age, renal function, and accompanying haemorrhagic risk. There has been considerable debate about when laboratory measurement might be appropriate and which tests should be used. A worksho...

An amidolytic assay employing the chromogenic substrate S 2337 (Kabi Diagnostica) was used to assay factor X in 35 healthy controls and in 100 outpatients receiving oral anticoagulant therapy. This method correlated well with a coagulation assay of factor X in the control group (r = 0.88). When compared with two routine tests for the control of anticoagulant theray (Thrombotest and prothrombin ...

Hirudin, an extract from the leech, has powerful antithrombin activity affecting the blood coagulation pathway. We evaluated the usefulness of hirudin in anticoagulating specimens for routine laboratory tests. Results using blood anticoagulated with hirudin corresponded well with results with blood treated with ethylenediamine tetraacetic acid (EDTA) in the complete blood count (CBC), including...