Whole blood platelet impedance aggregometry with the ROTEM platelet device: comparison of 2 anticoagulants and storage times for the establishment of canine reference intervals.

The ROTEM platelet device, a point-of-care whole blood platelet impedance aggregometer, is an add-on to the rotational thromboelastometry ROTEM delta device. The latter has been validated in dogs. We examined whether canine whole blood is suited for analysis with the ROTEM platelet device using adenosine-5'-diphosphate (ADP) and arachidonic acid (ARA) as agonists for platelet activation, and if there are significant differences between sample storage times and anticoagulants used. Subsequently, we determined canine reference intervals (RIs) for the ROTEM platelet device for ADP and ARA. In a pilot study, we examined whole blood from 7 dogs after 15-min and 60-min storage of lithium-heparinized samples and 40-min and 80-min storage of hirudinized samples. Statistical analysis showed no significant differences between ROTEM platelet device results for both ADP and ARA in lithium-heparin and hirudin anticoagulated canine whole blood. Lithium-heparinized blood samples analyzed after 15-min storage had the lowest coefficient of variation. RIs were determined for heparinized whole blood samples from 49 dogs after 15 min of storage.