Ecarin

Determination of prothrombin levels in patients undergoing anticoagulant therapy. Based on the interaction of hirudin with meizothrombin a simple ecarin clotting test for the monitoring of hirudin levels has been developed (Nowak and Bucha, 1993). Due to its action on acarboxy prothrombin, ecarin can be used for the determination of acarboxy prothrombin in the supernatant of barium sulfate treated patient plasma where normal carboxylated prothrombin has been removed by adsorption. Ecarin can be used for the detection of low prothrombin concentrations in plasma fractions for quality- and in-process control purposes.