Evaluation and Comparison of Thromboelastography and Conventional Coagulation Tests for Blood Coagulation Function in Children with Henoch-Schönlein Purpura

Abstract

To evaluate the coagulation function of children with Henoch-Schönlein purpura (HSP) by thromboelastography (TEG) and conventional coagulation tests (CCTs), and to explore the correlation and consistency of the 2 test methods. A total of 468 children with HSP were selected from January 2017 to December 2017 in Beijing Children's Hospital, Capital Medical University. The TEG and CCTs data were analyzed to evaluate coagulation function of children with HSP, meanwhile, the coagulation results were analysed the superiority of the 2 test methods was compared by Pearson correlation and Kappa consistency analysis. There were no clinically significant abnormalities practically in HSP children by TEG and CCTs analysis, except for D-dimer level was elevated (t=9.15, P＜0.001). There were no significant changes for coagulation data from, sex comparison of HSP children (P＞0.05 all), but the coagulation reaction time (R), blood clot formation time (K), α-Angle, CI value, fibrinogen, D-dimer and anti-thrombin III in HSP children with different age groups showed difference (P＜0.05 all), and the blood in children aged 0-2 years old tended to be hypercoagulable. The TEG indexes demonstrated no significant difference in coagulation function of children with HSP each other (P＞0.05). However, CCTs data showed that the blood in children with severe kidney involvement were hypercoagulable. Comparision results of the correlation and consistency of TEG and CCTs in detecting coagulation function of HSP children showed that R was weakly correlated with prothrombin time (PT), International Normalized Ratio (INR) and activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT). There were weak correlation between K, α-Angle and Fib (0.1＜|r|＜0.4 all). There was no obvious consistency between them each other (kappa＜0.4 all). The overall changes in coagulation function in children with HSP are not obvious, but the hyperfibrinolysis in hypercoagulable state may exists. Furthermore, younger age and severe kidney involvement may cause hypercoagulation in HSP children. The weakly correlation and consistency of TEG and CCTs in detecting coagulation function of HSP children are furtherly confirmation, and the 2 test methods may be irreplaceable.