REFERENCE RANGES OF PROTHOMBIN TIME AND ACTIVATED PARTIAL THOMBOPLASTIN TIME IN HEALTHY INFANT (< 1 year)

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To determine the reference values of PT and APTT amongst the healthy infants of < 1 year of age. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: It was a descriptive cross sectional study carried out at Haematology department of Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP), Rawalpindi. The Study duration was1 year and Non-probability convenience sampling was adopted for 2000 blood samples. The Sampling areas were MH, CMH, HFH and SBBH, Rawalpindi.The Data analysis was done by SPSS version 15. Mean, SD and percentages were the quantitative and qualitative variables used for statistical analysis. The PT value for clot formation was detected by the addition of thromboplastin reagent to plasma sample. While APTT value for clot formation was extracted by the addition of equal volume of phospholipid reagent and Kaolin suspension. RESULTS: The mean PT value amongst males and female uptil 9 month of age has shown no significant difference. While at age 1year females have higher PT values i.e 15.13 sec. (SD=2.25) when compared to males i.e 14.22 sec. (SD=0.63). However qualitative analysis has shown that 12- 15sec.was the frequently observed range in 95.15% (n=1903) infants. The mean APTT value was found to have same mean values for males and females. However, qualitative analysis has shown that 32-35 sec was the frequently observed range in 85% (n=1700) infants. CONCLUSION: The mean values of PT and APTT are almost same when compared to the adult values. They are not affected by the growing ages of an infant.