Retrospective investigation of the effect of ACT on platelet level in the post-operative period in patients undergoing cardiopulmonary bypass

During cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) in open heart surgery, anticoagulation should be performed to allow blood to circulate in the extracorporeal circuits without coagulation. In order to determine that the necessary anticoagulation is achieved, Activated clotting time (ACT) is measured. In this retrospective study we conducted, the effect of ACT values measured during CPB on Platelet (PLT) numbers in the postoperative period was compared with the PLT numbers in the preoperative period. 40 patients who underwent open heart surgery with CPB between 2019-2020 in Tekirdağ Namık Kemal University Cardiovascular Surgery Clinic were examined in terms of age, gender, weight, CPB duration, ACT values, preoperative and postoperative PLT values. The patients included in the study were divided into two groups of 20 each, between 480-700 and over 700, based on the highest ACT values measured during the operation. Independent Sample T and Chi-Square tests were used for statistical analysis. We found that the platelet level decreased independently of ACT. Postoperative platelet level decreased statistically significantly in both Group I (p = 0.000) and Group II (p = 0.000) compared to preoperative platelet level. Despite this significant decrease within the groups, no change was observed between the groups (p> 0.05). We think that the reason for the statistically significant decrease in the platelet level in both groups was not the ACT level but the effect of cardiopulmonary bypass and extracorporeal circulatory circuit elements. Keywords: Cardiopulmonary Bypass, Activated clotting time, Platelet