Online ExClusivE Habib Ur Rehman, MBBS, FACP, FRCPC Elevated APTT? Department of Medicine, Regina General Hospital, How best to follow up Saskatchewan, Canada
[email protected] This step-by-step guide will help you refine The author reported no potential conflict of interest your approach to an abnormal activated partial relevant to this article. thromboplastin time. CASE u During an office visit, 23-year-old CASE u mr. K’s physical examination is un- john K tells you that he recently experienced remarkable and his renal and liver panel— excessive bleeding after a dental extraction. including serum albumin—are within the he says that he has no personal or family his- normal range. as noted earlier, he had no tory of a bleeding disorder and is not taking history of bleeding before the tooth extrac- any medication that might have contributed tion; his family history is negative for excessive to the problem. bleeding, as well. his lab work shows a normal complete blood count and international normalized ratio (inr). his activated partial thrombo- Consider an artifactual cause plastin time (apTT), however, is 67 seconds It’s important to rule out artifactual causes (normal=24-37 seconds). of an abnormal APTT before undertaking a how would you manage his care? more detailed investigation. Although not applicable in this case, unfractionated hepa- orrect interpretation of abnormal rin in a central venous or arterial catheter can APTT readings requires an under- prolong APTT. C standing of the clinical context in z A high hematocrit value will give which the test is ordered and the test’s limita- falsely prolonged APTT.