Abstract

GONZALEZ, Fernanda Laura  and  LAURIA, María José. Determination of reference ranges for coagulation tests in a pediatric population. Acta bioquím. clín. latinoam. [online]. 2014, vol.48, n.2, pp.237-241. ISSN 0325-2957.

The haemostatic system varies throughout the first stages of life since the body undergoes a dynamic process of changes during the growth period. Little research has been conducted on the reference ranges of haemostasis tests in children; therefore, it is of great significance to investigate this subject. The following study is retrospective and it was conducted on 512 children up to 17 years old that attended the hospital requesting presurgical testing for scheduled ambulatory surgeries. Ranges of plasma prothrombin activity (APP), the activated partial thromboplastin time (aPTT) and fibrinogen were obtained from the patients' medical records. Taking into account the 97.5 percentile, the results showed important differences in APP and aPTT determination but showed no differences in the fibrinogen test. It is important that all laboratories establish their own reference ranges for these tests since they cannot be extrapolated to the ones in adults. This study proves that the haemostatic system undergoes significant changes during infancy which shall be taken into account for the correct interpretation of the results of the tests carried out.

Keywords : Reference ranges; Childhood; Adolescence; Activated partial thromboplastin time; Plasma prothrombin activity; Fibrinogen.

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