[Review: heparin. 1. Methods of determination and inhibitory mechanisms of some coagulation factors].

Abstract

In a brief survey four groups of determining methods are reported for the purpose of monitoring the heparin therapy, with their advantages and disadvantages being assessed simultaneously. Emphasis is placed on the heterogeneity of heparin with approximately 120 fractions which are the cause of different manners of response and an impediment to the development of a rapid, reliable and economically advantageous method. Finally, all heparin factors in the plasma are enumerated and their mechanisms of action on individual coagulation factors are referred to.