Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 22, 2026
Leveraging Turbidity and Thromboelastography for Complementary Clot Characterization
Published on: June 4, 2020
Optical and mechanical clot detection methodologies: a comparison study for routine coagulation testing
Nilgun Tekkesin1, Cumhur Kılınc
1Department of Biochemistry, Clinical Laboratory, Memorial Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey. niltek@hotmail.com
Background:
Automated coagulation analyzers are preferred to meet increasing coagulation test volume. Two distinct technological families exist based on optical and mechanical clot detection methodologies. Which one is superior to the other is still a conflict and needs new studies.
Methods:
We have compared prothrombin and activated partial thromboplastin results obtained with mechanical method with those obtained by photo-optical method used routinely in our specialized laboratory.
Results:
The instrumental results showed good precision ranging between 0.7% and 1.8% coefficient of variation. Statistical analysis demonstrated an excellent correlation between the photo-optical and mechanical analyzers for PT (R² 0.97), and aPTT (R² 0.85).
Conclusion:
Correlation between the two clot-detection systems was maintained even when measuring turbid samples (R² ≥ 0.97 for two tests).
