Patent attributes
The present invention provides a method for testing quickly and easily the manner in which an antithrombotic agent inhibits the acceleration of blood coagulation when a platelet agonist causes acceleration of blood coagulation. The invention is a test method wherein a system in which an anticoagulant is added to a portion of blood sampled from a patient being administered an antithrombotic agent (X system blood), and a system in which an anticoagulant and adenosine diphosphate or collagen are added to a portion of the abovementioned blood (Y system blood) are simultaneously measured by thromboelastograph; and the efficacy of the antithrombotic agent is assessed by comparing the R values of the X system blood and the Y system blood. If the R value of the Y system blood is not found to differ significantly from the R value of the X system blood, the drug is judged to be working. Adenosine diphosphate and collagen can be used as the anticoagulant. The present invention provides a heretofore unknown method for easily assessing the efficacy of an antithrombotic agent.
