Point of care measurement of lepirudin and heparin anticoagulation during systemic inflammation.

BACKGROUND: The number of indications for recombinant human hirudin lepirudin therapy has increased in recent years, and now includes acute coronary syndromes and heparin-induced thrombocytopenia. Hence, point of care monitoring appears desirable for therapy with lepirudin. As CoaguChek Plus (CCP) provides a rapid bedside test to monitor therapy with other anticoagulants, we aimed to determine its suitability for lepirudin therapy. METHODS: Forty-four healthy volunteers received a 2 ng/kg endotoxin infusion (to induce coagulation) together with clinically relevant doses of lepirudin or heparin in a prospective, placebo-controlled, randomised fashion. Measurements of CCP-partial thromboplastin time (aPTT) were compared to laboratory STA-aPTT. RESULTS: As expected, baseline values of CCP-aPTT were shorter than STA-aPTT. Lepirudin increased CCP-aPTT 3-fold, and STA-aPTT 2-fold 1 h after bolus infusion. During lepirudin infusion, the correlation between CCP-aPTT and STA-aPTT was excellent (r=0.86-0.92). Both methods were equally sensitive to over-anticoagulation with heparin. Acute systemic inflammation had little effects on CCP-aPTT. CONCLUSION: CCP-aPTT is suitable for longitudinal point of care monitoring of lepirudin therapy. As baseline values of CCP-aPTT are shorter than STA-aPTT, it is recommended not to indiscriminately change between methods in the follow-up of individual patients.