1. general information:

• blood tube type → blue (sodium citrate)
  • adult or pediatric, both differ in
    • volume
    • ratio line (1:9) (if under or overfilled → reject)
• when receiving the blood tube, centrifugate:
  • 3000 RPM i.e 1500 gravity
  • 15 minutes
  • must be at room temp
    • this is to fully separate components and make sure platelets are in buffy coat
• stability of blood tube is 4 hours, anything after and it is immediately rejected
  • can be labelled:
    • U and STAT for emergency (1 hour)
    • Routine → 2 hours

2. coagulation pathways:

1. intrinsic pathway:
   1. involves factors 8, 9, 11, 12
2. extrinsic pathway:
   1. factor 7
3. common pathway:
   1. shared between both pathways
   2. factor I (1) is seen here as the last step (fibrinogen)

3. Sysmex + types of tests:

Sysmex is the machine used to obtain coagulation test results

• it obtains results at core in the form of (second) but can be in concentration (g/ml)

• result is in TIME (seconds):

  • prothrombin time PT (extrinsic)
    • utilizes a reagent
  • Activated Partial Thromboplastin Clotting Time aPTT (instrinsic)
    • utilizes a reagent that contains Ca+ and silica (main component)→ clot activator
  • Thrombin time TT (common)

• result is in CONCENTRATION g/ml:

  • Fibrinogen test
  • D-dimer
  • ONLY these require calibration, the other ones are only just timers so no need