Impact of EDTA as an Anti-coagulant on Prothrombin Time Outcomes

Abstract

Background: A number of blood tests, including prothrombin time (PT), are frequently used in clinical settings to evaluate patients' coagulation status. Sodium citrate as anticoagulant ensures accurate measurements of clotting tests, such as prothrombin time (PT), while ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) helps to preserve whole blood and cellular components and less suitable for PT testing. Objectives: This study aimed to assess the possibility of using EDTA as an anticoagulant when performing PT testing and determine its effect on the results by measuring PT (using both EDTA and sodium citrate as anticoagulants) for 50 healthy volunteers living in Tarhuna. Results: The results of this study showed that when citrate was used as an anticoagulant, PT was normal in 88% of the samples, and INR was normal in 86%. In contrast, when EDTA was used as an anticoagulant, PT was elevated in 98% of the samples, while INR was above normal in 92% of them. Conclusions: This study concluded that EDTA as an anticoagulant is not suitable to use in coagulation testing. Further studies are recommended to identify potential alternative anticoagulants to citrate that can be used when performing coagulation tests, and more studies to find an equation that can be used to correlate the results of citrate and EDTA in emergency situations where citrate is unavailable.