Thromboelastography results on citrated whole blood from clinically healthy cats depend on modes of activation.
BACKGROUND
During the last decade, thromboelastography (TEG) has gained increasing acceptance as a diagnostic test in veterinary medicine for evaluation of haemostasis in dogs, however the use of TEG in cats has to date only been described in one previous study and a few abstracts. The objective of the present study was to evaluate and compare three different TEG assays in healthy cats, in order to establish which assay may be best suited for TEG analyses in cats.


METHODS
90 TEG analyses were performed on citrated whole blood samples from 15 clinically healthy cats using assays without activator (native) or with human recombinant tissue factor (TF) or kaolin as activators. Results for reaction time (R), clotting time (K), angle (alpha), maximum amplitude (MA) and clot lysis (LY30; LY60) were recorded.


RESULTS
Coefficients of variation (CVs) were highest in the native assay and comparable in TF and kaolin activated assays. Significant differences were observed between native and kaolin assays for all measured parameters, between kaolin and TF for all measured parameters except LY60 and between native and TF assays for R and K.


CONCLUSIONS
The results indicate that TEG is a reproducible method for evaluation of haemostasis in clinically healthy cats. However, the three assays cannot be used interchangeably and the kaolin- and TF-activated assays have the lowest analytical variation indicating that using an activator may be superior for performing TEG in cats.
Department of Small Animal Clinical Sciences, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Copenhagen-Denmark, Dyrlaegevej 16, Frederiksberg C., Denmark. clara@life.ku.dk
Clara B
CB
Marschner
Charlotte R
CR
Bjørnvad
Annemarie T
AT
Kristensen
Bo
B
Wiinberg
D000818:Animals; D001769:Blood; D001773:Blood Cells / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D002415:Cats; D019343:Citric Acid; D003018:Clot Retraction; D005342:Fibrinolysis; D006801:Humans; D007616:Kaolin / Q000494:pharmacology*; D011930:Reaction Time; D011994:Recombinant Proteins / Q000494:pharmacology; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013916:Thrombelastography / Q000379:methods / Q000662:veterinary; D013925:Thromboplastin / Q000494:pharmacology*
D011994:Recombinant Proteins; D007616:Kaolin; D019343:Citric Acid; D013925:Thromboplastin