title: Usefulness of the bleeding time to predict the risk of clinical bleeding in patients with uraemia.
abstract: In a prospective study of haemostatic status of 15 uraemic Nigerians a highly significant prolongation of bleeding time (p less than 0.001) and significantly lower haematocrit levels (p less than 0.001) were detected in comparison to healthy controls. A highly significant positive correlation (r = +0.778) between prolongation of bleeding time and blood urea was present. Six patients had overt clinical bleeding with significantly prolonged bleeding time (p less than 0.01) compared to uraemics without overt bleeding. Blood urea was significantly different in both groups (p greater than 0.1). Platelet count, prothrombin time, partial thromboplastin time and Hess tourniquet test did not differ between the uraemic patients and controls. Haemostatic dysfunction has been noted in Nigerian uraemics we studied. Bleeding time is a useful but simple means of assessing such dysfunction.
authors: Department of Medicine, Ogun State University Teaching Hospital, Sagamu.
authors: A E
authors: AE
authors: Jaiyesimi
authors: E C
authors: EC
authors: Mba
authors: I O
authors: IO
authors: Edeki
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001760:Bleeding Time; D001778:Blood Coagulation Disorders / Q000097:blood* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology; D002648:Child; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D014511:Uremia / Q000150:complications*