Protein C is an important anticoagulant factor in the body, a vitamin K-dependent zymogen, whose main role is to inactivate coagulation factor VIII alpha and coagulation factor V alpha after activation, inhibiting blood coagulation.
When the lack of protein C, will make the coagulation and anticoagulation and fibrinolytic system disorders, thus triggering thrombotic diseases, such as deep vein thrombosis, diffuse intravascular coagulation, etc.; and many common diseases, such as liver disease, renal disease, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, etc., will affect the protein C content and (or) activity in the blood.
Therefore, the determination of PC in plasma is of great value for the preventive diagnosis of the above diseases, observation of the condition and judgment of the prognosis. Currently, there are two types of tests for protein C, one is for its antigenic content and the other is for its activity.
Protein C activity (PC:AC) can be measured by the activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT) method and the chromogenic substrate method (CSA). The assay recommended by the World Health Organization is CSA.