Thrombosis research
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Thrombosis research · Jan 2008
ReviewHas the incidence of deep vein thrombosis in patients undergoing total hip/knee arthroplasty changed over time? A systematic review of randomized controlled trials.
There is a perception in the orthopaedic and thromboembolism community that the incidence of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) has decreased in patients undergoing total knee arthroplasty (TKA) or total hip arthroplasty (THA). ⋯ The incidence of DVT in patients undergoing elective TKA appears to have declined in patients receiving warfarin thromboprophylaxis.
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Thrombosis research · Jan 2008
Comparative StudyDiagnostic accuracy of the Triage D-dimer test for exclusion of venous thromboembolism in outpatients.
We evaluated the diagnostic performance of the Triage D-dimer test, a new fast quantitative point-of-care whole blood D-dimer assay and compared it with the Vidas D-dimer assay. ⋯ The Triage and Vidas D-dimer tests show comparable diagnostic accuracy. Vidas showed a significant higher sensitivity. Our findings strongly suggest lowering the cutoff for the Triage D-dimer test from 400 to 350 ng/mL. In this way specificity lowers from 42 to 38%, but, more importantly, sensitivity increases from 91 to 95%.
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Thrombosis research · Jan 2008
ReviewModeling the action of factor VIIa in dilutional coagulopathy.
Dilutional coagulopathy is observed in patients who have lost blood and had the blood volume replaced with components that do not have plasma procoagulants and anticoagulants. Since both procoagulant and anticoagulant mechanisms contribute to total thrombin generation, it is not clear whether the procoagulant or anticoagulant effects will dominate when both are decreased. Decreasing antithrombin levels leads to increasing thrombin generation in ex vivo models. ⋯ Limited clinical data suggest that factor VIIa has been useful in controlling intractable bleeding in some cases of dilutional coagulopathy. Preliminary data suggest that factor VIIa activation of factors X and IX on activated platelets enhances thrombin generation significantly in a model of dilutional coagulopathy. This may suggest a mechanism to account for the efficacy of factor VIIa in reducing blood loss in some settings of dilutional coagulopathy.