Evaluation of the BART Test (a Modification of the Whole-blood Activated Recalcification Time Test) as a Means of Monitoring Heparin Therapy

The whole-blood clotting time, the activated partial thromboplastin time, the thrombin time, and a new test procedure, the BART test (a modification of the whole-blood activated recalcification time test) were evaluated as a means of monitoring heparin therapy. The whole-blood clotting time, the thrombin time, and the activated partial thromboplastin time tests are time-consuming, and were found to be essentially insensitive to both extremes of heparin-induced hypocoagulability. The BART test was found to be a simple, time-saving reproducible test system, which appears to be more sensitive to heparin-induced hypocoagulability than the other existing test systems.