Current Perspectives on Diagnostic Assays and Anti-PF4 Antibodies for the Diagnosis of Heparin-Induced Thrombocytopenia

Abstract

Heparin-induced thrombocytopenia (HIT) is a recognized clinical entity in patients receiving unfractionated heparin and low–molecular weight heparin. Currently, diagnosing HIT includes the combination of a physician’s clinical suspicion based on a clinical scoring system and a series of laboratory tests. In the present article, we discuss challenges in suspecting and diagnosing HIT in consideration of the turnaround time of available tests and recent advances in techniques and methodologies of newer immunoassays and functional assays.

Keywords:

• heparin-induced thrombocytopenia
• laboratory diagnosis
• immunoassay
• functional assay
• platelets
• platelet factor 4
• serotonin-release assay
• HIPA test

Disclosure

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.