Neither tranexamic acid nor ulinastatin affects the activated clotting time values in healthy volunteers and heparinized cardiovascular surgery patients

To investigate the effects of tranexamic acid (TXA) and ulinastatin (UTI) on activated clotting time (ACT) of healthy volunteers and cardiovascular surgical patients in the in-vitro study. Blood samples of ten healthy volunteers adding unfractionated heparin (UFH) concentrations of 0.5 IU/mL, 1.0 IU/mL, and 2.0 IU/mL. Then mixed with TXA concentrations of 10 µg/mL, 20 µg/mL, 50 µg/mL, 100 µg/mL, and 200 µg/mL, or mixed with UTI concentrations of 100 U/mL, 200 U/mL, 1,000 U/mL, 5,000 U/mL, and 10,000 U/mL. The blood samples from patients underwent different types of heparinized cardiovascular surgery (non-cardiac arterial procedures [NCAP], off-pump coronary artery bypass grafting [OPCAB], and cardiopulmonary bypass cardiac surgery [CPB-CS]) were directly added with different concentrations of TXA or UTI. ACT were measured after adding UFH, UFH mixed TXA, or UFH mixed UTI. There was no statistical difference observed in ACT values among different concentrations of TXA in heparinized blood samples from healthy volunteers and patients underwent different types of cardiovascular surgery (HUFH0.5−TXA=2.899, P = 0.716; HUFH1.0−TXA=0.905, P = 0.970; HUFH2.0−TXA=5.630, P = 0.344; HNCAP−TXA=2.331, P = 0.802; HOPCAB−TXA=2.983, P = 0.703; HCPB−TXA=0.502, P = 0.992). There was also no statistical difference in ACT values among different concentrations of UTI in heparinized blood samples from healthy volunteers and patients underwent cardiovascular surgery (HUFH0.5−UTI=2.564, P = 0.767; HUFH1.0−UTI=8.188, P = 0.146; HUFH2.0−UTI=1.559, P = 0.906; HNCAP−UTI=2.362, P = 0.797; HOPCAB−UTI=1.819, P = 0.874; HCPB−UTI=0.386, P = 0.996). The current in-vitro study indicated that the presence of concentrations of TXA and UTI did not exert a significant influence on ACT during healthy volunteers and heparinized cardiovascular surgical patients.