Abstract:

Objective To investigate activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT) and prothrombin time (PT) reference intervals in children and adolescents by retrospective analysis. Methods Patients in Shanghai Children′s Medical Center for surgical procedures and aged from 1 day old to 18 years old were enrolled for this study after excluding patients with hematological disorders, patients with cardiopulmonary diseases and patients with diseases of liver and kidney. A coagulation screening test was performed for all patients who were not treated with anti-coagulation or anti-platelet drugs for the past 2 weeks with a STA-Compact hemostasis system. There were 4 166 children eligible for this study, and all the children were classified into ≤30 d, 31 d-1 year, 2-6 years, 7-14 years and 15-18 years groups, respectively. The SPSS 17.0 software was used to analyze APTT and PT data. Results The sex distribution had no difference among the 5 groups. No statistical significance was observed on APTT results between the group of ≤30 d with the groups of 31 d-1 year, 2-6 years and 7-14 years, and on PT results among the group of 2-6 years with the group of 7-14 years (P>0.05). There were statistical significance among the other groups (P=0.000). Conclusions Through retrospective analysis, the reference intervals of APTT and PT for STA-Compact hemostasis system in children and adolescents are established.

Key words: Child, Adolescent, Coagulation, Reference interval, Activated partial thromboplastin time, Prothrombin time