Prothrombin Time (PT) for Human Plasma on QCM-D Platform: A Better Alternative to 'Gold Standard'

Measurements of hemostasis parameters such as Prothrombin time (PT) are substantial in various clinical cases of extensive surgery, dialysis or innate hemostasis disorders. This is the first study of recognition of PT assay for human plasma on quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation (QCM-D) platform. QCM-D technique has been compared in parallel with ‘gold standard’ mechanical coagulometer in the terms of anticoagulant monitoring in 20 plasma samples. In this report the shortest sample volume consumption of 2.66 µl of human plasma for PT has been demonstrated on QCM-D platform. This also demonstrates the shortest reagent (thromborel) volume consumption employed ever for PT. 'Gold standard' employs 38 folds higher plasma as well as reagent volume consumption. Additionally, QCM-D technique proved superior to 'gold standard’ for monitoring of the whole process of plasma coagulation kinetics. It yielded total coagulation information from frequency and dissipation shifts, which are impossible on 'gold standard’. Furthermore, QCM-D platform offers the calculation of fibrinogen concentration along with PT and total coagulation monitoring in single set of measurements. Fibrinogen concentration can be calculated from calibration curves having R2 values of 0.99. This is promising support for Point of Care (POC) settings in the perspective that it covers the extreme range of fibrinogen from 1.0 to 6 g/L. PT based QCM-D platform for plasma application proved better alternative to that of 'gold standard' and it paves the path towards routine laboratory method.