heparin neutralization; heparin removal (Hepzyme)

Indications

• ruling out heparin contamination as a cause of abnormal coagulation tests, i.e. PT, aPTT etc
• useful for removing heparin from blood specimens drawn from a heparinized line
• useful for assessing liver function in patients on heparin therapy

Principle

• platelet-poor plasma is added to a vial of heparanase (Hepzyme)
• heparanase cleaves heparin to produce oligosaccharides without antithrombotic activity
• Hepzyme can neutralize up to 2 USP units of unfractionated heparin in 1 ml of citrated plasma

More general terms

• specimen processing