Journal Information
Journal ID (publisher-id): BM
Journal ID (nlm-ta): Biochem Med (Zagreb)
Title: Biochemia Medica
Abbreviated Title: Biochem. Med. (Zagreb)
ISSN (print): 1330-0962
ISSN (electronic): 1846-7482
Publisher: Croatian Society of Medical Biochemistry and Laboratory Medicine
Article Information
Copyright statement: ©Croatian Society of Medical Biochemistry and Laboratory Medicine.
Copyright: 2018, Croatian Society of Medical Biochemistry
License (open-access):
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Date received: 05 November 2018
Date accepted: 26 June 2019
Publication date (print and electronic): 15 October 2019
Volume: 29
Issue: 3
Electronic Location Identifier: 030706
Publisher ID: bm-29-3-030706
DOI: 10.11613/BM.2019.030706
Rapid serum tube technology overcomes problems associated with use of anticoagulants
Kong-Nan Zhao[1]
Goce Dimeski[2]
John de Jersey[3]
Lambro A Johnson[1]
Michael Grant[4]
Paul P Masci[1]
[1] Faculty of Medicine, University of Queensland, Translational Research Institute, Brisbane, Australia
[2] Chemical Pathology, Princess Alexandra Hospital, Brisbane, Australia
[3] School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
[4] Q-Sera Pty Ltd, Level 9,31 Queen St, Melbourne, Australia
Author notes:
[*] Corresponding author: m.lavin@uq.edu.au
Introduction
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.
Materials and methods
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.
Results
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.
Keywords: prothrombin activators; serum; anticoagulants; analytes
