Thromboelastography in veterinary medicine.

Thromboelastography (TEG) has been used in experimental animal studies since the early 1960s and in a routine clinical setting for the past decade. From the data currently available, it is clear that both the scope and limitations of TEG in animals resemble those observed in humans. TEG has been used to diagnose hypercoagulability in animals with disseminated intravascular coagulation, various types of cancer, and critical illness. Its ability to detect and monitor animals with various types of coagulopathies has been well established, both clinically and in experimental studies. TEG is often used in animals to monitor the effect of different pro- and anticoagulant drugs and often performs better at this task than conventional coagulation assays. TEG is already well established in veterinary medicine, and with the rapid dissemination of the technique currently taking place, we can expect to see a wide variety of interesting animal data published in the near future.