Abstract:

Objective To investigate the application of shortened activated partial thromboplastin time（APTT） in the post-analytical quality management of routine coagulation assay. Methods A total of 249 coagulation assay reports with APTT being lower than the lower limit of reference interval were collected,and the results were verified through post-analytical quality management. The verified samples’ data were collected,and statistical analysis was carried out. Results A total of 249 samples had no inaccurate anticoagulant ratio and related interference factors. A total of 31 unqualified samples were found after post-analytical result verification,which came from different 14 clinical departments,and all of them contained tiny clots or fibrin filaments. The qualified samples concentrated with specific departments. The distribution of diseases in these cases mainly included nephritic syndrome,coronary heart disease and multiple myeloma. The unqualified reports accounted for 12.4% of the total number of shortened APTT,and 21 of them had only APTT shortening,accounting for 8.4% of the total number of APTT shortened reports,accounting for 67.7% of the unqualified reports. The shortened APTT data had no statistical significance between qualified and unqualified reports（P=0.199）. Conclusions The shortened APTT can be used as an independent factor for judging whether the blood sample contains tiny clots or fibrin filaments,and it can guide the manual verification of sample quality based on clinical information.

Key words: Activated partial thromboplastin time, Coagulation assay, Post-analytical quality management, Result verification