[Seventy years later: prothrombin time revisited].
Introduced by Armand Quick in 1935, the prothrombin time is the test the most frequently performed in haemostasis laboratories. The diversity of origin and purity of the tissue factor contained in the thromboplastin reagents as well as the composition of phospholipids explain the differences in sensitivity to factor(s) deficiency(ies) observed. Unfortunately, the expression of assay results in non anticoagulated patients varies depending on the place the test is performed. For patients under oral anticoagulation treatment, huge standardisation efforts have led to the implementation of the International Normalized Ratio (INR) for the monitoring of the treatment, which has considerably reduced the differences between thromboplastin reagents. It is hoped that a comparable degree of standardization will be achieved for samples from patients with hepatic disease.
Reber
Guido
G
Unite d'hémostase, Service d'angiologie et hémostase, HUG, 1211 Geneve 14. guido.reber@hcuge.ch
Boehlen
Françoise
F
D006801:Humans; D019934:International Normalized Ratio; D011517:Prothrombin Time