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Efficacy of Thromboelastography (TEG) in Predicting Acute Trauma-Induced Coagulopathy (ATIC) in Isolated Severe Traumatic Brain Injury (iSTBI)

Indian Journal of Hematology and Blood Transfusion volume 35, pages 325–331 (2019)Cite this article

Abstract

To evaluate the efficacy of point-of-care thromboelastography (TEG) to predict acute trauma-induced coagulopathy (ATIC) in isolated severe TBI (iSTBI). We conducted an observational diagnostic cohort. Patients for whom TEG was performed before blood transfusion were stratified by conventional coagulation tests (CCTs) on admission and classified as “ATIC” (prothrombin time ≥ 16.70 s; international normalized ratio ≥ 1.27; activated partial thromboplastin time ≥ 28.80 s) (n = 24) or “no ATIC” (n = 34). Univariate analysis to compare groups, receiver operating characteristic analysis to establish cut-off and diagnostic validation was done. Fifty-eight patients were included [32(25–45) years; 97% male; GCS 6.3 ± 1.5]. 41% developed ATIC. Compared to no-ATIC, ATIC group had significantly prolonged κ-time (4.6 vs. 2.5 min; p = 0.01) and shortened α-angle (40.2° vs. 56.3°; p = 0.03). A cut-off for κ-time ≥ 3.7 (AUC 0.68 95% CI 0.54–0.82, specificity 70%, sensitivity 63%) and α angle ≤ 48.0 (AUC 0.66, 95% CI 0.51–0.81, specificity 67%, sensitivity 67%) was established. The diagnostic accuracy of this cut-off for identifying ATIC, was 55.6% with sensitivity (81.8%) and specificity (14.3%). TEG may be a clinically sensitive test for identifying the underlying coagulopathy following TBI. However confirmation with CCTs is recommended.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Laboratory Medicine, Jai Prakash Narayan Apex Trauma Center, AIIMS, New Delhi, India

    Venencia Albert & Arulselvi Subramanian

  2. Department of Hematology, AIIMS, New Delhi, India

    Hara Prasad Pati

  3. Department of Neurosurgery, Jai Prakash Narayan Apex Trauma Center, AIIMS, New Delhi, India

    Deepak Agrawal

  4. Department of Emergency Medicine, Jai Prakash Narayan Apex Trauma Center, AIIMS, New Delhi, India

    Sanjeev Kumar Bhoi

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  1. Venencia Albert
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  2. Arulselvi Subramanian
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  4. Deepak Agrawal
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  5. Sanjeev Kumar Bhoi
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Correspondence to Arulselvi Subramanian.

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All authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences Ethics Committee [Ref. IESC/T-431/30.11.2012,OT-1/27.01.2016] and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Albert, V., Subramanian, A., Pati, H.P. et al. Efficacy of Thromboelastography (TEG) in Predicting Acute Trauma-Induced Coagulopathy (ATIC) in Isolated Severe Traumatic Brain Injury (iSTBI). Indian J Hematol Blood Transfus 35, 325–331 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12288-018-1003-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12288-018-1003-4

Keywords

  • Thromboelastography
  • Point-of-care systems
  • Blood coagulation tests
  • Traumatic Brain injuries