Evaluation of a point-of-care coagulation analyzer for measurement of prothrombin time, activated partial thromboplastin time, and activated clottingtime in dogs

Objective-To evaluate a point-of-care coagulation analyzer (PCCA) in dogs w ith coagulopathies and healthy dogs. Animals-27 healthy and 32 diseased dogs with and without evidence of bleedi ng. Procedure-Prothrombin time (PT), activated partial thromboplastin time (aPT T), and activated clotting time (ACT) were determined, using a PCCA and sta ndard methods. Results-Using the PCCA, mean ( SD) PT of citrated whole blood (CWB) from he althy dogs was 14.5 +/-1.2 seconds, whereas PT of nonanticoagulated whole b lood (NAWB) was 10.4 +/-0.5 seconds. Activated partial thromboplastin time using CWB was 86.4 +/-6.9 seconds, whereas aPTT was 71.2 +/-6.7 seconds usi ng NAWB. Reference ranges for PT and aPTT using CWB were 12.2 to 16.8 secon ds and 72.5 to 100.3 seconds, respectively. Activated clotting time In NAWB was 71 +/- 11.8 seconds. Agreement with standard PT and aPTT methods using citrated plasma was good (overall agreement was 93% for PT and 87.5% for a PTT in CWB). Comparing CWB by the PCCA and conventional coagulation methods using citrated plasma, sensitivity and specificity were 85.7 and 95.5% for PT and 100 and 82.9% for aPTT, respectively. Overall agreement between the PCCA using NAWB and the clinical laboratory was 73% for PT and 88% for aPT T. Using NAWB for the PCCA and citrated plasma for conventional methods, se nsitivity and specificity was 85.7 and 68.4% for PT and 86.7 and 88.9% for aPTT, respectively. Conclusions and Clinical Relevance-The PCCA detected intrinsic, extrinsic, and common pathway abnormalities in a similar fashion to clinical laborator y tests.