© 2019 |Published by Scholars Middle East Publishers, Dubai, United Arab Emirates 197 Saudi Journal of Medicine Abbreviated Key Title: Saudi J Med ISSN 2518-3389 (Print) |ISSN 2518-3397 (Online) Scholars Middle East Publishers, Dubai, United Arab Emirates Journal homepage: http://scholarsmepub.com/sjm/ Original Research Article Haemostatic Status in Uraemics in UNTH, Enugu Chukwurah Ejike Felix 1 , Obeagu Emmanuel Ifeanyi 2 *, Orjinta Rebecca Chinyelu 3 1 Department of Haematology and Immunology, Faculty of Clinical Medicine, Ebonyi State University, Abakaliki, Nigeria 2 Department of Medical Laboratory Science, Faculty of Health Sciences, Imo State University, Owerri, Nigeria 3 Department of Medical Laboratory Science, Faculty of Health Sciences, Ebonyi State University, Abakaliki, Nigeria *Corresponding author: Obeagu Emmanuel Ifeanyi | Received: 11.03.2019 | Accepted: 23.03.2019 | Published: 30.03.2019 DOI:10.21276/sjm.2019.4.3.7 Abstract Uraemia is the clinical syndrome which occurs when there is a marked nitrogen retention due to renal failure. It had been suggested that urea level has an effect on coagulation and haematological profile. The haemostatic status was studied in Thirty known uraemic patients of the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital Enugu. Fifteen non-uraemic people were used as controls. The mean result obtained are as follows:-Packed cell volume (PCV), 29 ± 5.4%, Platelet count, 238 + 80.4 n 10 9 L, prothrombin time, 14.8 + 1.45 seconds, Bleeding time 5.9 + 1.98 minutes. For control subjects the following result were obtained: Packed cell volume40.8 + 2.4%, Platelet count 267 ±48 x 10 9 L, Prothrombin time 12.9 +_0.93 seconds and Bleeding time 2.43 + 0.52 minutes. A statistical comparison of the above results between uraemic patients and control subjects showed that there were no significant difference in the platelet count (P>0.20) and prothrombin time (P>0.1) but showed significant difference in the packed cell volume and Bleeding time. A weakly positive correlation (r= + 0.11) was found to exit between prolongation of bleeding time and blood urea. Keywords: Haemostatic status, uraemics, UNTH Enugu. Copyright @ 2019: This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution license which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium for non-commercial use (NonCommercial, or CC-BY-NC) provided the original author and source are credited. INTRODUCTION Urea is one of the end products of protein metabolism. A normal adult ingests 10 - 15g of nitrogen per day in dietary protein - on the average Ig nitrogen is derived from about 6g protein [1]. The nitrogen is then principally excreted in the urine as urea. Urea is formed in the liver from deaminated amino acids, most probably by way of the ornithine - arginine cycle [2]. Any excess urea in the circulation is eliminated from the blood stream by the kidneys and passed out in urine. In health, blood always contains some urea. The level of urea in the blood varies but the normal range is between 2.5 to 8.3 mmol per litre for a normal person on a full ordinary diet [2]. With a fall in protein intake, there is a fall in urea but a blood urea of over 8.3mmol/L is suggestive of impaired renal function. Uraemia is the clinical syndrome due to renal failure resulting from either disease of the kidneys themselves or from disorders or disease elsewhere in the body which induces the kidney dysfunction and which results in gross biochemical disturbance in the body including retention of urea and other nitrogenous substances in the blood. Uraemia is also the name given to the clinical syndrome which occurs when there is a marked nitrogen retention due to renal failure [1]. Acute renal failure is present when there is a rapid rise in blood urea or creatinine over a period of hours or a few days. It is classified as pre-renal (depletion of the extracellular fluid, ECF), Renal (acute tubular necrosis or acute glomerulonephritis) and post-renal (obstruction to urine flow). These cause acute uraemia [3]. Urea diffuses readily through body fluids so that the estimation can be carried through whatever body fluids are most readily available - whole blood, serum, plasma, CSF, Oedema fluid. It has been suggested that urea level has an effect on coagulation and haematological profile - Bleeding time, prothrombin time, platelet count, packed cell volume and whole blood clotting time [1]. The bleeding time is one of the tests used to study patients thought to be suffering from blood clotting defects. In pathological conditions, bleeding time can be shortened within 12 hours after acute myoear4ial infarction [4] and also can be prolonged in thrombocytopenia, von willebrand's disease. Acute systemic lupus erythematosus, obstructive jaundice, cardiac bypass surgery, glycogen storage disease type I, disseminated intravascular coagulopathy, acute fibrinolyois, cyanotic heart disease and uraemia [5]. Therefore if all the above pathological conditions are