Measurement of thrombin generation in clotting plasma can be used to assess bleeding or thrombotic tendency. In parallel with the thrombin generation (TG) experiment, a fixed thrombin activity (Diagnostica Stago’s patented thrombin calibrator) is measured in a second fraction of the same plasma, correcting for any optical or substrate consumption artifacts. TG is a universal test capable of assessing a research subject’s global hemostatic balance in the case of hemorrhage or thrombosis. Few methods previously existed that allowed for TG standardization and calibration. The Calibrated Automated Thrombogram (CAT) Assay TG method is both specific and sensitive, thus giving increased relevance to hemostatic testing in academic research centers, pharmaceutical companies and contract research organizations.
Based on a fluorescence signal, the CAT assay is sensitive to any individual anti- or prothrombotic drug or combinations of drugs, which makes it applicable for the development and validation of new anti- or prothrombotic drugs. Other published applications include analysis of samples from donors with rare platelet defects, primary hemostasis factor defects, factor V Leiden, and lupus anticoagulants. Current coagulation assays utilizing clotting methodology miss 95% of the thrombin formed due to the fact that at the moment of clot formation, only 5% of total thrombin has formed. The CAT is an alternative measurement of coagulability that gives much more information regarding global hemostatic potential as compared to routine clotting tests.