New perspectives in diagnosis of hemostasis disorders

The classical coagulation analyses are performed either by using manual methods or by means of various instruments with a different degree of automation. The introduction of chromogenic peptide substrates which can be split by thrombin has led to the development of photometric assays for PT and aPTT determination independent from the fibrinogen concentration and from its conversion to fibrin. After that, turbidimetric methods for the determination of fibrinogen, thrombin time and batroxobin time have been set up allowing the use of photometry for the determination of the most important hemostaseological parameters. For such purposes a new analytical system (ChromoTimeSystem, Behringwerke AG, Marburg/FRG) based on a special instrument and reagents for chromogenic and turbidimetric methods for coagulation and fibrinolysis has been developed. The ChromoTimeSystem allows to perform by photometry all important tests for coagulation and fibrinolysis. The analytical characteristics of this new system are presented.