Activated thromboplastin time, plasma heparin and plasma fibrinogen using the Fibrintimer 10

After a thorough study, and having chosen the machine that is to equip an average sized haemostasis laboratory, the installation then requires certain steps (the reorganisation of work, better adapted reagents, a change of normality, a fine tuning of the technics, the time to get used to the machine). In this perspective, this work describes the regulation of the technic to determine the heparin activity on the Fibrintimer 10 (F 10) by chronometry (thrombin clotting time with variable concentration), a study of the repeatability and reproducibility of activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT), plasma heparin (HEP) and fibrinogen on the Fibrintimer 10, a study of the correlation between the results we got with the F 10 and the thermostat water-bath for the APTT and the HEP and between those we got on the F 10 and the fibrometer for the fibrinogen. The F 10 has allowed us to save more time whilst keeping the same technics and reagents. The determination of the heparin activity, by thrombin clotting time with variable concentration, gives us a method which is quick, cheap and useful for the following-up of the patients undergoing a treatment with standard heparin. The reproducibility and repeatability prove to be good for the 3 tests in our operatory conditions as well as the correlations between the results we get with both methods.