Thrombin Generation in Newborn Plasma Is Critically Dependent on the Concentration of Prothrombin

The ability to generate thrombin is decreased and delayed in plasma from the healthy newborn infant compared to the adult. Only 30 to 50% of peak adult thrombin activity can be produced in neonatal plasma. To test whether this observation can be explained by the low neonatal levels of the contact or vitamin K dependent factors, we measured neonatal thrombin generation after raising the concentration of these factors to adult values. We also …