Pitfalls in the assessment of disseminated intravascular coagulation in patients on dabigatran

Dabigatran is an orally administrated anticoagulant that directly inhibits thrombin. However, the drug can affect routine coagulation tests such as prothrombin time (PT), activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT) and thrombin time (TT), as well as haemostasis assays, (e.g., clot-based coagulation factor assays). There are limited data on the effect of dabigatran on some fibrinogen measurements and on D-dimer assays, both important components in the laboratory assessment of disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC). The objectives of this study were: (1) to determine the effects of various concentrations of dabigatran on fibrinogen and D-Dimer assays; and (2) to compare the von Clauss method of fibrinogen measurement using two reagents with differing thrombin concentrations (35 UNIH/mL and 100 UNIH/mL) and PT-derived fibrinogen measurement in the presence of the drug. Aliquots of pooled normal plasma were spiked with different concentrations of dabigatran to reflect in vivo on-therapy levels as well as levels observed in cases of massive accumulation of the drug. Of the routine coagulation assays, in ascending order of sensitivity to dabigatran were PT, APTT and TT. The von Clauss method of measuring fibrinogen using a reagent with low thrombin concentration was affected even at drug levels corresponding to in vivo trough concentrations, whereas the reagent with higher thrombin concentration was only affected at drug levels that were above observed peak concentrations in patients taking 150 mg of the drug twice daily. PT-derived fibrinogen was affected at approximately in vivo peak drug concentrations. The D-dimer assay was affected only at drug concentrations well above peak drug levels. Attempts at in vitro neutralisation of the drug with DOAC-Stop resulted in 'correction' of some of these measurements depending on drug concentration. Like the routine coagulation assays, there is a dabigatran concentration dependent effect on the accuracy of fibrinogen and D-dimer assays. Falsely low fibrinogen results due to dabigatran may confound the assessment of DIC and diagnostic laboratories need to evaluate the performance of their own reagents.