Pseudo-thrombocytopenia (PTCP). A challenge in the daily laboratory routine?

Abstract

Anticoagulation with ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) is a necessary pre-requisite for automated blood cell counting. With a prevalence of 0.01–1%, EDTA anticoagulation is accompanied by time- and temperature-dependent in vitro aggregation of platelets, resulting in false low counts. To avoid wrong clinical conclusions, spontaneous anticoagulant-induced platelet agglutination should therefore be recognized during analysis. This might be a challenge for the routine laboratory.

Keywords

• analyzer flagging
• anticoagulant-induced pseudo-thrombocytopenia (ptcp)
• misleading diagnoses
• ptcp prevalence
• ptcp recognition strategies