Blood, 1953, Vol. 8, No. 2, pp. 101-124.
© 1953 American Society of Hematology, Inc.
Plasma Thromboplastin Component (PTC)
A Hitherto Unrecognized Blood Coagulation Factor
Case Report of PTC Deficiency
SIDNEY G. WHITE MAJOR, M.C., USAF1,
PAUL M. AGGELER M.D.1, and
MARY BETH GLENDENING PH.D.1
1 Departments of Medicine, Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Pediatrics, University of California School of Medicine, San Francisco, Calif.
1. A new hemorrhagic disease characterized by a prolonged whole blood
coagulation time caused by the delayed formation of thrombin is described.
2. The patient suffering from this disease was found to have normal concentrations of all previously described coagulation factors.
3. Because the coagulation defect could be completely corrected by the addition of tissue thromboplastin or platelet-poor hemophilic plasma and because
tests for prothrombin and prothrombin conversion accelerators gave normal
results and prothrombin utilization was impaired, it was concluded that the
missing factor was concerned with the production of thromboplastin in the
plasma. Accordingly it was named the plasma thromboplastin component (PTC).
4. The clinical and laboratory resemblance of PTC deficiency and hemophilia
is striking. However, the two diseases can be distinguished by the fact that
normal serum, the 45 to 50 per cent saturated ammonium sulfate fraction of
normal plasma, the citrate eluate from barium sulfate, which has been mixed
with normal plasma or serum, and hemophilic plasma correct PTC deficiency
but are ineffective in hemophilia. On the other hand, while the 33 per cent saturated ammonium sulfate fraction of normal plasma, barium sulfate adsorbed
normal plasma, Cohn's Fraction I and PTC-deficient plasma correct the hemophilic defect, they are ineffective in PTC deficiency.
5. A method for the partial purification and concentration of the PTC factor
is described.
Submitted on September 9, 1952
Accepted on November 18, 1952
