Automation of the Kaolin Clotting Time

An automated Kaolin Clotting Time (KCT) has been developed to simplify screening for the Lupus Anticoagulant (LA). The assay is performed on the ACL300 Research coagulation analyser, but may be modified for other centrifugal analysers. Automation of the KCT allows up to 17 delta KCT (delta KCT) screens (Gibson J, Starling E, Date L et al. Simplified screening procedure for detecting lupus inhibitor. J Clin Pathol 1988; 44: 226-31) or 2 full Exner curves (Exner T, Rickard KA, Kronenberg H. A sensitive test demonstrating lupus anticoagulant and its behavioural patterns. Br J Haematol 1978; 40: 143-51) to be performed in one test cycle. An automated and manual delta KCT screen was performed on 17 patients with a previously diagnosed LA, 41 hospital patients having routine coagulation studies and 37 blood donors. In addition, 11 patients on full-dose heparin and 12 patients with stable warfarin anticoagulation were tested. The correlation between the automated delta KCT and the manual delta KCT was 0.958 (p less than 0.001). A full Exner curve was performed on 5 of the patients with a LA and 1 blood donor which demonstrated that the automated KCT produced results entirely comparable with the manual method. The automated KCT is a quick, inexpensive approach to screening patients for the presence of LA.