Blood Clotting Profile

Description

Coagulation Profile Tests

Blood clotting profile tests (also known as coagulation profile tests) are used to diagnose and assess bleeding problems and to monitor people who take warfarin or other anticoagulant medicines.

Blood clotting profile includes the following tests;

• APTT (activated partial thromboplastin time)–measures one part of the clotting pathway known as the “intrinsic pathway”. it is compared against a sample of normal blood, the “control” value. It is increased by therapy with intravenous heparin, haemophilia or DIC.
• INR (international normalised ratio)–measures one part of the clotting pathway known as the “extrinsic pathway”. it is increased by warfarin therapy, liver dysfunction, or DIC.
• Platelet Count–the number of platelets in the bloodstream; it is also a routine component of the Complete Blood Count (CBC)
• Fibrinogen–this protein is a precursor to fibrin, which is an essential part of a blood clot. Fibrinogen may be consumed by conditions such as DIC or some snakebite envenomation. Decreased fibrinogen results in an increased bleeding tendency.
• D-dimer–this is a product of clot breakdown and is increased in conditions of increased clotting activity in the body but is relatively non-specific because it is often elevated because of different reasons.