A Comparative Study of Point-of-Care Prothrombin Time in Cardiopulmonary Bypass Surgery

Point-of-care (POC) devices allow for prothrombin time/international normalized ratio (PT/INR) testing in whole blood (WB) and timely administration of plasma or prothrombin complex concentrate during cardiopulmonary bypass surgery. This study evaluated the sensitivities of a new POC PT test, a dry-hematology method with heparin neutralization technology (DRIHEMATO PT-S [DRI PT-S]; AT Corporation, Kanagawa, Japan), and compared it with other POC tests currently available.Prospective, observational study.University hospital, single center.Healthy volunteers and warfarin-treated and cardiac surgical patients.In WB samples obtained from 6 healthy volunteers, PT-INR results of DRI PT-S were not affected by an in vitro addition of heparin6.0 U/mL. In warfarin-treated samples (n = 88, PT/INR 0.98-3.87), PT-INR with DRI PT-S showed acceptable correlation with the laboratory method (rThis study demonstrated that PT/INR can be accurately assessed using the dry-hematology method in WB under therapeutic heparin levels. Currently available other POC PT/INR tests are affected by heparin, and thus they are not recommended for coagulation monitoring during cardiopulmonary bypass.