Understanding the "philosophy" of laboratory hemostasis

Unlike many other areas of laboratory medicine, laboratory hemostasis has some peculiarities, which makes it one of the most complex diagnostic domains in clinical medicine. The inherent complexity of the hemostasis process, the components of which have not yet been thoroughly unravelled, is mirrored by a large number of hemostasis disturbances, which can involve single or multiple components. Although laboratory diagnostics represents an unavoidable part of the diagnostic reasoning in patients with bleeding or thrombotic disorders, the basic concept beneath the assumption that in many human pathologies, one single test may be sufficient for the diagnosis, does not hold true in hemostasis. There are in fact many aspects that would lead us to conclude that laboratory hemostasis can be considered a very challenging arena for many clinicians and perhaps also for some laboratory professionals. The most challenging aspects typically include the following concepts; that hemostasis is an intricate and multifaceted process, that more than one test is typically needed to achieve a final diagnosis, that results of screening tests depend on many biological factors and do not allow making a final diagnosis, that harmonization of techniques is still an unmet target, and that the calculations used vary widely among laboratories. This article is hence aimed at discussing many of these aspects, with the hope of presenting a useful contribution to better understand the "philosophy" of laboratory hemostasis.