Original Articles

The TEG^®6s on Shaky Ground? A Novel Assessment of the TEG^®6s Performance under a Challenging Condition

The Heart Centre for Children, The Sydney Children's Hospitals Network, New South Wales, Australia

Address correspondence to: Martin Gill, MSc, Department of Perfusion, Heart Centre for Children, The Children's Hospital at Westmead, 212 Hawkesbury Road, Westmead, New South Wales 2145, Australia. E-mail: martin.gill@health.nsw.gov.au

Received: 11 August 2016
Accepted: 10 December 2016

Abstract

Thromboelastography^® (TEG^®) is used to guide clinical decision-making across many medical and surgical subspecialties. Advances in this field have resulted in analyzers becoming increasingly user friendly, and have led to a reduction in the possibility of user error. The new TEG^®6s does not come with the warnings of vibration and movement avoidance of its predecessor. It was decided to test the capability of this device while being subject to motion. TEG^®6s machine 1 was placed in an environment free from motion. TEG^®6s machine 2 was placed on a flatbed platelet agitator, which would expose the device to sudden and continual motion. Blood from the same healthy volunteer was pipetted into cartridges and inserted into both machines. Testing was commenced on machine 2 simultaneously with the agitator being activated. Visual and numerical data were collected. All measured parameters were significantly different (p < .05) between the motion and motion-free groups apart from CK R-Time, CRT R-Time, CRT Angle, and CRT Ly30. The TEG^®6s results differ significantly when the analyzer is exposed to a set amount of motion. Such motion should be avoided if results are to be relied upon.