Plasma Prothrombin during Treatment with Dicumarol

Abstract

Ganrot, P. O. & Niléhn, J.-E. Plasma Prothrombin during Treatment with Dicumarol. II. Demonstration of an abnormal prothrombin fraction. Scand. J. clin. Lab. Invest. 22, 23-28, 1968. Immunochemical analysis of plasma from patients treated with Dicumarol revealed the co-occurrence of two fractions of prothrombin. They could be separated completely by agarose gel electrophoresis. One of the fractions behaved like prothrombin of plasma from subjects not treated with Dicumarol and was therefore called the ‘normal’ prothrombin. The other fraction did not form a complex with calcium ions, it was not activated on recalcification of citrated plasma, and it could not be absorbed with barium sulphate precipitate. An immunochemical method was devised for quantitative determination of the ‘normal’ prothrombin fraction. In individual plasma samples from 52 patients, some receiving treatment with Dicumarol, a very close correlation (r=0.946) was found between the concentration of ‘normal’ prothrombin and the prothrombin-proconvertin activity.