Rapid serum tube technology overcomes problems associated with use of anticoagulants

Failure to obtain complete blood clotting in serum is a common laboratory problem. Our aim was to determine whether snake proth-rombin activators are effective in clotting blood and producing quality serum for analyte measurement in anticoagulated patients. Whole blood clotting was studied in a tota...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Biochemia Medica 2019-10, Vol.29 (3), p.030706-558
Main Authors: Zhao, Kong-Nan, Dimeski, Goce, de Jersey, John, Johnson, Lambro A, Grant, Michael, Masci, Paul P, Lavin, Martin F
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
analytes
anticoagulants
Anticoagulants - pharmacology
Blood Coagulation - drug effects
Blood Coagulation Tests
Heparin - pharmacology
Humans
Original
Prothrombin - pharmacology
prothrombin activators
serum
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Summary:Failure to obtain complete blood clotting in serum is a common laboratory problem. Our aim was to determine whether snake proth-rombin activators are effective in clotting blood and producing quality serum for analyte measurement in anticoagulated patients. Whole blood clotting was studied in a total of 64 blood samples (41 controls, 20 Warfarin patients, 3 anticoagulated patients using snake venom prothrombin activator (OsPA)) with plain tubes. Coagulation was analysed using a visual assay, Hyland-Clotek and thromboelastography. Healthy control blood was spiked with a range of anticoagulants to determine the effectiveness of OsPa-induced clotting. A paired analysis of a Dabigatran patient and a control investigated the effectiveness of the OsPA clotting tubes. Biochemical analytes (N = 31) were determined for 7 samples on chemistry and immunoassay analysers and compared with commercial tubes. Snake venom prothrombin activators efficiently coagulated blood and plasma spiked with heparin and commonly used anticoagulants. Clotting was observed in the presence of anticoagulants whereas no clotting was observed in BDRST tubes containing 3 U/mL of heparin. Snake venom prothrombin activator enhanced heparinised blood clotting by shortening substantially the clotting time and improving significantly the strength of the clot. Comparison of 31 analytes from the blood of five healthy and two anticoagulated participants gave very good agreement between the analyte concentrations determined. Our results showed that the snake venom prothrombin activators OsPA and PtPA efficiently coagulated recalcified and fresh bloods with or without added anticoagulants. These procoagulants produced high quality serum for accurate analyte measurement.
ISSN:1330-0962
1846-7482
DOI:10.11613/BM.2019.030706