Resonant Acoustic Rheometry for Real Time Assessment of Plasma Coagulation in Bleeding Patients

Abstract

Disordered hemostasis associated with life-threatening hemorrhage commonly afflicts patients in the emergency room, critical care unit, and perioperative settings. Rapid and sensitive hemostasis phenotyping is needed to guide administration of blood components and hemostatic adjuncts to reverse aberrant coagulofibrinolysis. Here, resonant acoustic rheometry (RAR), a technique that quantifies the viscoelastic properties of soft biomaterials, was applied to assess plasma coagulation in a cohort of bleeding patients with concomitant clinical coagulation assays and whole blood thromboelastography (TEG) as part of their routine care. RAR captured the dynamic characteristics of plasma coagulation that were coagulation activators-dependent. RAR coagulation parameters correlated with TEG reaction time and TEG functional fibrinogen, especially when stratified by comorbidities. A quadratic classifier trained on RAR parameters predicted transfusion of fresh frozen plasma and cryoprecipitate with high overall accuracy. These results demonstrate the potential of RAR as a bedside hemostasis assessment to guide transfusion in bleeding patients.