COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE METHOD FOR DETERMINATION OF D - DIMER

Abstract

Introduction: D - dimer is a product released during the process of blood clotting and degradation, which can be measured by blood sample analysis. There is usually the minimal activity of the pro/anticoagulant system in the human body, which generates low levels of D-dimer in healthy individuals. Normal values for plasma D-dimer are ≤ 0.50 mg / l. Aim: The aim of the present study is to determine to what extent the quantitative and qualitative method for determination of D - dimer can be interchangeable and what is their diagnostic reliability in the normal and pathological area of measurement. Materials and methods: We studied the levels of D-dimer by two methods - quantitative and qualitative, in 91 patients aged 25 to 86 years, of which 59 men and 32 women. To determine the D-dimer, we used venous blood taken in a vacuette containing sodium citrate. We used a Roche test for quantitative determination and a Latex agglutination test for qualitative determination. Results: It was found that in positive samples above 0.5 mg/l, there is a very high percentage of coincidence. There is a discrepancy in the values obtained by the two methods at the negative values below 0.5 mg/l. We determined the sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of both methods. Conclusion: The correlation in the results of the two methods is very good, but the quantification of D-dimer is more specific and accurate. We recommend that the value of 0.5 mg/l should be used as a cut off value for D-dimer.