TEG® 6s Heparin Neutralization Cartridge for Hemostatic Assessment of Patients Undergoing Cardiovascular Surgery
Year: 2025
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: BACKGROUND: Heparin administration can limit viscoelastic testing. The cartridge-based TEG ® 6s thromboelastography system (Haemonetics Corp., USA) uses heparinase to neutralize heparin effects. This study aimed to validate the TEG 6s global hemostasis-heparin neutralization cartridge, recently cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, in heparinized patients undergoing cardiovascular surgery with cardiopulmonary bypass or cardiovascular procedures without cardiopulmonary bypass and liver transplantation. METHODS: Adult patients undergoing cardiovascular surgery/invasive cardiac procedures with planned use of unfractionated heparin were included in this multicenter observational study. Blood samples were obtained before heparin administration, after heparin administration, and after heparin reversal (or at the end of the procedure when protamine was not administered). The kaolin and the kaolin with heparinase assays on the heparin neutralization cartridge were compared with their identical counterparts on the clinically validated TEG 6s citrated multichannel cartridge; the RapidTEG TM with heparinase assay was evaluated against the kaolin with heparinase assay on the citrated multichannel cartridge. The functional fibrinogen with heparinase assay was evaluated against plasma fibrinogen levels (Clauss assay). Comparison analysis was performed using Deming linear regression or Pearson/Spearman correlation. RESULTS: A total of 543 samples were collected from 185 patients (113 cardiovascular surgery with cardiopulmonary bypass; 72 cardiovascular procedures without cardiopulmonary bypass). Deming regression slopes were equal to/approximately 1.0 for comparisons between assays on the heparin neutralization and citrated multichannel cartridges; Pearson correlation coefficients ranged from 0.79 to 0.96. The functional fibrinogen with heparinase assay was correlated with plasma fibrinogen levels (Spearman correlation, 0.68). Addition of heparinase to the RapidTEG and functional fibrinogen assays resulted in a higher number of analyzable samples compared to these assays without heparinase. CONCLUSIONS: This study provided clinical validation for the TEG 6s heparin neutralization cartridge for point-of-care coagulation testing in patients undergoing cardiovascular surgeries or procedures. Further prospective trials with clinical endpoints are needed to determine the clinical utility of this cartridge.
Source: Anesthesiology
Institutions: University of California, San Francisco, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Haemonetics (United States), Porter Adventist Hospital, AdventHealth, The University of Queensland, Ochsner Medical Center, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard University, The University of Texas at San Antonio Health Science Center, Sinai Hospital, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, University of Pittsburgh
Language: English
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W4414313126