Features Partner Sites Information LinkXpress hp
Sign In
Advertise with Us
LGC Clinical Diagnostics

WERFEN

Werfen provides diagnostic instruments for critical care and hemostasis to meet the testing needs of medical professi... read more Featured Products: More products

Download Mobile App




Clinical Utility of Anti-Platelet Factor 4 ELISA Test Characterized

By LabMedica International staff writers
Posted on 29 Nov 2015
Diagnosing heparin-induced thrombocytopenia, a potentially catastrophic immune-mediated disorder, continues to pose significant challenges for clinicians, as both clinical and laboratory tools lack specificity.

There is mounting evidence supporting a positive correlation between definitive heparin-induced thrombocytopenia and optical density (OD) positivity from the widely available anti-platelet factor 4 enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (PF4 ELISAs); however, the clinical features distinguishing these patients remain poorly understood.

Scientists at the NYU Langone Medical Center (New York, NY, USA) conducted a case-controlled, retrospective chart review of patients from two large, urban academic institutions who underwent a PF4 ELISA at a central laboratory between July 1, 2009, and July 1, 2014. PF4 ELISA assay is a polyimmunoglobulin assay (anti-immunoglobulin G (IgG)/IgAIg/M) utilizing 60 units of heparin in the positive control. Internal positive and negative control values were recorded for each patient’s PF4 ELISA.

The PF4 ELISA testing was performed using the LIFECODES PF4 Enhanced assay kit (Immucor GTI Diagnostics, Inc., Waukesha, WI, USA). In total, 184 negative patients (OD less than 0.7), and 121 positive patients (OD greater than 0.7), including 74 low-positive patients (0.7, OD less than 1.4) and 47 high-positive patients (OD greater than 1.4) were identified. Several clinical variables were significantly different in the negative group compared with the positive group, including hospital day, previous admission within the past three months, and the presence of a new thrombus. However, many of these variables were not different between the negative and low-positive group, and were only distinct between the negative and high-positive group. When the low-positive and high-positive groups were compared, only the 4T score was significantly different.

The authors concluded that patients with high-positive ODs represent a distinct clinical group when compared with low-positive ODs. However, no single characteristic analyzed was able to distinguish those with a low-positive PF4 ELISA OD and those with a high-positive PF4 ELISA OD. Our findings reinforce the clinical utility of the 4T score, which was the only clinical variable that significantly distinguished low-positive and high-positive groups. The study was published on November 19, 2015, in the Journal of Blood Medicine.

Related Links:

NYU Langone Medical Center 
Immucor GTI Diagnostics, Inc. 



New
Gold Member
Human Chorionic Gonadotropin Test
hCG Quantitative - R012
Verification Panels for Assay Development & QC
Seroconversion Panels
New
Auto Clinical Chemistry Analyzer
cobas c 703
New
Multi-Function Pipetting Platform
apricot PP5
Read the full article by registering today, it's FREE! It's Free!
Register now for FREE to LabMedica.com and get access to news and events that shape the world of Clinical Laboratory Medicine.
  • Free digital version edition of LabMedica International sent by email on regular basis
  • Free print version of LabMedica International magazine (available only outside USA and Canada).
  • Free and unlimited access to back issues of LabMedica International in digital format
  • Free LabMedica International Newsletter sent every week containing the latest news
  • Free breaking news sent via email
  • Free access to Events Calendar
  • Free access to LinkXpress new product services
  • REGISTRATION IS FREE AND EASY!
Click here to Register








Channels

Clinical Chemistry

view channel
Image: The tiny clay-based materials can be customized for a range of medical applications (Photo courtesy of Angira Roy and Sam O’Keefe)

‘Brilliantly Luminous’ Nanoscale Chemical Tool to Improve Disease Detection

Thousands of commercially available glowing molecules known as fluorophores are commonly used in medical imaging, disease detection, biomarker tagging, and chemical analysis. They are also integral in... Read more

Immunology

view channel
Image: The cancer stem cell test can accurately choose more effective treatments (Photo courtesy of University of Cincinnati)

Stem Cell Test Predicts Treatment Outcome for Patients with Platinum-Resistant Ovarian Cancer

Epithelial ovarian cancer frequently responds to chemotherapy initially, but eventually, the tumor develops resistance to the therapy, leading to regrowth. This resistance is partially due to the activation... Read more

Microbiology

view channel
Image: The lab-in-tube assay could improve TB diagnoses in rural or resource-limited areas (Photo courtesy of Kenny Lass/Tulane University)

Handheld Device Delivers Low-Cost TB Results in Less Than One Hour

Tuberculosis (TB) remains the deadliest infectious disease globally, affecting an estimated 10 million people annually. In 2021, about 4.2 million TB cases went undiagnosed or unreported, mainly due to... Read more

Pathology

view channel
Image: The ready-to-use DUB enzyme assay kits accelerate routine DUB activity assays without compromising data quality (Photo courtesy of Adobe Stock)

Sensitive and Specific DUB Enzyme Assay Kits Require Minimal Setup Without Substrate Preparation

Ubiquitination and deubiquitination are two important physiological processes in the ubiquitin-proteasome system, responsible for protein degradation in cells. Deubiquitinating (DUB) enzymes contain around... Read more

Technology

view channel
Image: The HIV-1 self-testing chip will be capable of selectively detecting HIV in whole blood samples (Photo courtesy of Shutterstock)

Disposable Microchip Technology Could Selectively Detect HIV in Whole Blood Samples

As of the end of 2023, approximately 40 million people globally were living with HIV, and around 630,000 individuals died from AIDS-related illnesses that same year. Despite a substantial decline in deaths... Read more

Industry

view channel
Image: The collaboration aims to leverage Oxford Nanopore\'s sequencing platform and Cepheid\'s GeneXpert system to advance the field of sequencing for infectious diseases (Photo courtesy of Cepheid)

Cepheid and Oxford Nanopore Technologies Partner on Advancing Automated Sequencing-Based Solutions

Cepheid (Sunnyvale, CA, USA), a leading molecular diagnostics company, and Oxford Nanopore Technologies (Oxford, UK), the company behind a new generation of sequencing-based molecular analysis technologies,... Read more
Copyright © 2000-2025 Globetech Media. All rights reserved.