Tag Archives: D-dimer

January 2020—D-dimer has a problem. Several problems, in fact. Many, some might say. Let’s start with the basics regarding D-dimer assays: unit and magnitude. Setting up the equation is easy, and the digits are small: 2 × 4. When applied to D-dimer testing, however, the answer often means far-flung problems for laboratories and clinicians. Parsed out (for fans of James Thurber, this means channeling schoolmarm Miss Groby), D-dimer has two different units of measure. Some assays report fibrinogen equivalent units (FEU), and others measure D-dimer units (DDU).

December 2017—Having validation data to support the use of age-adjusted D-dimer cutoffs with the D-dimer assay your laboratory uses is a must, and know well the limitations of point-of-care prothrombin time/INR testing. That advice and more was shared in a “Hot Topics in Hemostasis” session at CAP17, presented by Russell Higgins, MD, and Karen Moser, MD.