A Comprehensive Evaluation of the Performance of Duplicate Prothrombin Time and Activated Partial Thromboplastin Time Assays

Abstract

An evaluation of the performance of duplicate prothrombin time (PT) and activated partial thromboplastin time (aPTT) assays was undertaken to develop analytical duplicate performance criteria in order to quantitate the risks associated with singlet versus duplicate procedures. Data were retrospectively collected from two hospital laboratories using two different coagulation systems. Included in the study were 6,391 patient samples; 3,047 PT, 3,334 aPTT, for a total of 12,782 data points. If a difference between duplicates of 5% or less is deemed analytically (or clinically insignificant for PT, then fewer than 1% of the samples analyzed by either laboratory would require duplicates. If a difference between duplicates of 15% or less is deemed analytically (or clinically) insignificant for aPTT, then fewer than 2% of samples would exceed this limit for laboratory A, but 6.0% of samples from laboratory B exceeded this limit.