The APTT can be rather sneaky at times! In part one of this case we saw how the APTT can be prolonged in factor deficiencies.
You are working in a small hospital and the surgical team request fresh frozen plasma for a patient prior to surgery. The patient is 42 years old and female and has short bowel following resection for Crohn’s disease. She needs to go for another procedure, but the coagulation profile shows:
- PT 14s (11-14s)
- APTT 56s (33-40s)
- Fibrinogen (Clauss) 6.9g/L (1.5-4.5g/L)
- FBC – normocytic anaemia
Questions:
- How do you approach this problem?
- Is FFP the best way forward?
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