Evaluation of CoaguChek Pro ACT in cardiac catheterization laboratory

The objective of this study was to assess the analytical performance of CoaguChek Pro ACT assay versus Hemochron Celite ACT assay concerning activated clotting time (ACT) values and the correlations versus heparin. Enrolled were 158 patients and 101 normal subjects from five cardiac catheterization laboratories (cathlabs). Two different CoaguChek Pro ACT lots were compared to different lots of Hemochron Celite ACT. All sites used arterial blood and one site also used venous blood. Determinations were carried out before and directly after heparinization, and 1-4 h later. Besides the ACT values, hematocrit, platelet counts and factor Xa levels were also determined. The correlations between the Hemochron Celite lots and the two different CoaguChek Pro lots for arterial and venous blood for all sites were good (r=0.88 and 0.84). The agreement between both CoaguChek Pro ACT lots was excellent (r=0.99). The correlations between heparin and CoaguChek Pro ACT were similar to those for the Hemochron Celite lots. There was no influence of the hematocrit and the platelets. The imprecision of the method was very good (CV<6%). This demonstrates that the CoaguChek Pro ACT assay is especially useful for monitoring heparin in cathlabs.