Journal of clinical monitoring and computing
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J Clin Monit Comput · May 1999
Point-of-care and standard laboratory coagulation testing during cardiovascular surgery: balancing reliability and timeliness.
The use of point-of-care technology has increased faster than efforts to validate its effectiveness compared to standard laboratory testing modalities. To address this issue with a current point-of-care coagulation system (HEMOCHRON Jr, International Technidyne Corporation (ITC), Edison, NJ), we designed a study to test the hypothesis that data obtained from point-of-care coagulation equipment correlates with data obtained from standard laboratory coagulation equipment. One of the potential advantages gained using point-of-care testing is the ability to obtain more rapid results. To address this issue, turnaround time, defined as the elapsed time (in minutes) from when the sample was acquired from the patient until the investigators knew the results, was also determined. ⋯ The results from this study population reveal that data obtained from point-of-care prothrombin time, international normalized ratio and activated partial thromboplastin time results correlate with results obtained from standard laboratory coagulation testing. The value of obtaining reliable results in a timely fashion offers a potential advantage for point-of-care testing in dinical situations, such as in the operating room, where saving time may translate into financial savings.