Simple sample prep and than 3 easy steps with minimal “hands on time” to a highly precise and quantitative determination of the fibrinogen level in a sample

Determining the fibrinogen level of a horse quantitatively with high precision is now possible directly at the patient side or in your clinic.

This allows for faster treatment, allows you to follow the time course of an infection by repeated testing and improves the dialogue with the owner as decision may be based on diagnostic data obtained where and when you need them.

How to test

Insert a room temperature QuickVet® Equine Fibrinogen™ Cartridges into the analyzer and enter the cartridge code found on the label of the foil pouch.
Collect the sample using an evacuated or standard test tube containing 3.2 % or 3.8 % sodium citrate.
Mix gently by inverting the tube at least 5 times to ensure proper mixing.
Spin the blood sample to platelet poor plasma and take 100 micro liter of plasma using the fixed volume pipette and the pipette tip supplied in the pouch into the prefilled micro vial.
Confirm that the sample has been obtained in a sodium citrate tube and prepared correctly by pressing the Next button on the screen.
Enter the optional patient ID and sample ID and then press the Next button on the screen.
When prompted by the instrument use the fixed volume pipette to dispense 100 micro liter of the diluted plasma into the sample well on the cartridge.
The plasma will be drawn automatically into the cartridge and as soon as the instrument detects the plasma the test starts automatically.
After approximately 10 minutes the result is displayed on the screen together with a graphical representation showing the result and the normality range.
Print or record the result and discard the cartridge.

Evaluating the result

An elevated fibrinogen level indicates that the patient is suffering from one of the following issues:
- General inflammatory response due to an infection. Fibrinogen normally increases within 24 to 48 hours from a normal level of 2-4 g/L and may exceed 10 g/L on day 4 - 7 post infection. It is not uncommon in horses to have increased plasma fibrinogen levels as the sole indicator of inflammation.
- Surgical trauma. Levels of serum amyloid A, fibrinogen and iron reflects the intensity of the surgical trauma, where as WBC do not do this. Fibrinogen is therefore a good diagnostic marker to monitor the healing process after a surgical procedure.
- Bacterial infection. The fibrinogen level can be used to predict the time course of an bacterial infection as has been shown with Escherichia coli endotoxin. It has also been shown to be an effective screening tool to diagnose Rhodococcus Equi infections in foals. Fibrinogen concentrations has also been shown to enable a more precise diagnosis of the severity of an inflammation than that based simply on clinical conditions in respiratory diseases, particularly bacterial pneumonia.
- Viral infection. Horses with equine influenza and herpes virus 2 has been proven to show elevated fibrinogen levels 3 days post infection.
- Parasite infection. Parasitized (Strongelus Vulgaris) ponies showed in a study to have significantly elevated fibrinogen levels compared to a control group 9, 14, 21 and 45 days after infection.
- Aseptic arthritis. Experimentally induced aseptically inflammation showed a significant increase in fibrinogen with a maximum level 3 - 6 days post-injections.