Editorial
Today we are pleased to send you our digital Newsletter which aims to provide you with some important ECAT information, relevant articles and reviews on publications in the fields of quality control and/ or laboratory diagnosis in thrombosis & haemostasis.
Enjoy reading them.
Petra van Velp
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ECAT Office
On June 1st the ECAT office opened again on all working days but there is still a reduced number of staff. We do our utmost to keep responding to all your questions as quickly as possible. However we may still not be able to respond on the same day. We apologise for any inconvenience.
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EQA Surveys
The Survey Schedule for the second series of surveys has been modified. Below is a summary of the changes:
| Survey |
Description |
Survey period ends at |
| 2020-M1 |
Main survey |
July 14th |
| 2020-L1 |
Lupus survey |
July 14th |
| 2020-A1 |
Anticoagulation survey |
July 14th |
| 2020-H1 |
Homocysteine survey |
July 14th |
| 2020-T1 |
ROTEM/TEG survey |
July 14th |
| 2020-TG2 |
Thrombin Generation |
July 14th |
| 2020-P2 |
PFA 100/200 |
July 14th |
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Original survey period |
| 2020-S3 |
Screen survey |
22-26 June |
| 2020-S4 |
Screen survey |
03-07 august |
It is expected that the third series of survey will continue on the originally scheduled dates.
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ECAT Participants' Meeting
We have decided to postpone our Participants' Meeting, originally scheduled for 5 and 6 November 2020 to November 2021. The new dates for the symposium are 18 and 19 November 2021.
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ECAT Information:
Assay Evaluation Project BAY94-9027
In 2019 ECAT, in co-operation with Bayer and the North American Specialized Coagulation Laboratory Association (NASCOLA), initiated a project on quality control samples for proficiency evaluation and further data collection on assay performance of BAY 94-9027. Read more
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Focus Article:
External Quality Control for PFA 100/200
The PFA-100/200 is a test system for analysing platelet function in citrated whole blood. Blood is aspirated at high shear rates through disposable cartridges containing an aperture within a membrane coated with either Collagen and Epinephrine (CEPI) or Collagen and ADP (CADP). These agonists together with the high shear stress, induce platelet adhesion, activation and aggregation leading to rapid occlusion of the aperture and cessation of blood flow termed the closure time (CT). The PFA-100 is meant as a screening test to detect problems with primary haemostasis (platelet function, Von Willebrand Factor).
In 2019 a pilot study was performed on external quality control for the PFA 100/200. The meaning of this pilot study was to investigate the feasibility of such external quality control surveys. Read more
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Literature Review:
Harmonizing light transmisssion aggregometry in the Netherlands by implementation of the SSC-ISTH guideline.
(I.C.A. Munnix et al. Platelets 2020)
Moniek de Maat, Erasmus MC, The Netherlands
Light transmission aggregometry (LTA) is considered the gold standard method for evaluating platelet function. However, there is a lot of variation in protocols (pre-analytical procedures and agonist concentrations) and results. Therefore, Dutch clinical chemists used the SSC guideline as the basis for a national LTA protocol and studied the effect of standardisation.
Read more
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Literature Review:
Performance of factor IX extended half-life product measurements in external quality control assessment programs
(A. Nederlof et al. Journal of Thrombosis and Haemostasis; ahead of print)
Piet Meijer, ECAT, The Netherlands
Patients with haemophilia B are increasingly treated with extended half-life (EHL) factor IX (FIX) concentrates. The introduction of these EHL concentrates presents a major challenge for the laboratory. To understand the variation in FIX activity levels, all available diagnostic assays need to be directly compared. Therefore in 2018 the ECAT Foundation, together with the NEQAS Blood Coagulation (United Kingdom) and RCPA (Australia) conducted a global survey to evaluate the quality of FIX measurements using FIX-deficient plasma samples spiked with recombinant FIX (rFIX), rFIXFP, rFIXFc, and N9-GP to levels at typical FIX through (6 IU/dL) and peak levels (60 IU/dL).
Read more
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Upcoming Events
XXVIII ISTH and 66st SSC
12-14 July 2020, Virtual congress, Free registration
website
For more events, please have a look into our Calendar.
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