Incidence and clinical significance of anti‐PF4/heparin antibodies of the IgG, IgM, and IgA class in 755 consecutive patient samples referred for diagnostic testing for heparin‐induced thrombocytopenia

Abstract

Detection of IgG, IgM and IgA class antibodies by PF4/heparin ELISA yields a positive test result about twice as often as does a platelet activation assay, with only a minority of the additional patients detected likely having HIT. Thus, there is a potential for considerable over-diagnosis of HIT by laboratories that utilize only an ELISA for diagnostic testing.