SENSITIVITY TO ACTIVATED PROTEIN-C - INFLUENCE OF ORAL-CONTRACEPTIVESAND SEX

We investigated sensitivity to activated protein C (APC) in 43 men, 42 women not using oral contraceptives (OC) and 38 women using OC contai ning 30.0-37.5 mu g ethinyl estradiol. A commercially available kit wa s used. Men were more sensitive to APC as compared with women not usin g OC (p <0.005), but this difference seems not to be of clinical impor tance. Women using OC showed to be significantly less sensitive to APC , reflected by a lower APC-ratio, as compared with men (P <0.005) and women not using OC (p <0.05). So, in normal individuals the APC-sensit ivity differs according to sex and estrogen intake. This should be tak en into account when interpreting APC-ratios.