Variability of three activated clotting time point-of-care systems in cardiac surgery: reinforcing available evidence.

Background: Cardiac surgery with extracorporeal circulation (ECC) requires the administration of anticoagulant drugs to maintain ACT ranges 400-600 seconds, which requires exhaustive coagulation monitoring for which various point-of-care devices are available. However, there is variability between them, so we aimed to compare the values in ACT measurement.

Methods: Simultaneous ACT measurements were performed with the Hemochron Response, Hemostasis Management System Plus (HMS Plus) and Hemochron Signature systems.