Difference Between OT and PT

The key difference between OT and PT is that the OT (occupational therapy) is a form of management that helps to treat patients while PT (prothrombin) is an investigation that identifies any bleeding tendency.

Occupational therapy is a rapidly evolving non-pharmacological intervention used in the management of different disease conditions. PT or the prothrombin time is an indicator of the prothrombin concentration of the blood.

CONTENTS

1. Overview and Key Difference
2. What is OT
3. What is PT
4. Side by Side Comparison – OT vs PT in Tabular Form
5. Summary

What is OT?

Occupational therapy or OT is a rapidly evolving non-pharmacological intervention used in the management of different disease conditions. It improves the patient’s quality of life by empowering the mentally and physically disabled people to carry out their day to day tasks on their own without having to depend on the others support.

This is a subjective therapy which changes according to the nature of the patient’s disease condition, his or her level of incapacity and preference.

Occupational therapists take part in the patient management in the following setups and circumstances:

  • In the acute care of patients
  • In taking care of differently abled children
  • Helping mentally unstable patients
  • Helping patients who have undergone serious surgical procedures to get back to their normal life
  • In the management of geriatric patients

What is PT?

PT or the prothrombin time is an indicator of the prothrombin concentration of the blood. These two quantities are inversely related, meaning, an increase in the prothrombin concentration will decrease the prothrombin time.

There is a standard procedure to measure the prothrombin time. A blood sample drawn from a patient is immediately oxalated to prevent the spontaneous conversion of prothrombin to thrombin. Then an excess of calcium ions and tissue factor are added to the oxalated blood. Calcium ions neutralize the effect of oxalate while the tissue factor converts prothrombin to thrombin via the extrinsic pathway. Then the time taken for the coagulation is measured. This is what we interpret as the prothrombin time. In a normal person, the PT is usually around 12s. However, this can change even in the same person, depending on the techniques used and the potency of the tissue factor added to the oxalated blood. The international normalized ratio is there to avoid these errors.

ISI or international sensitivity index is provided by the manufacturer of the tissue factor. It indicates the activity of the tissue factor with a standardized sample.

A higher INR means the patient has a high bleeding tendency and vice versa. The normal range of INR is 0.9-1.3.

What is the Difference Between OT and PT?

 OT vs PT

Occupational therapy is a rapidly evolving non-pharmacological intervention that helps in the management of different disease conditions. PT or the prothrombin time is an indicator of the prothrombin concentration of the blood.
Type
Mode of patient management Investigation used to make a diagnosis

Summary – OT vs PT

Occupational therapy is a rapidly evolving non-pharmacological intervention which is used in the management of different disease conditions. PT or the prothrombin time is an indicator of the prothrombin concentration of the blood. The occupational therapy is a form of management whereas PT is an investigation used to make a diagnosis. Thus, this is the key difference between OT and PT.

Reference:

1. Hall, John E., and Arthur C. Guyton. Guyton and Hall textbook of medical physiology. 12th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier, 2016. Print.

Image Courtesy:

1.”US Navy Occupational therapists working with outpatients” By Grazioso2 – Own work (CC BY-SA 4.0) via Commons Wikimedia
2. “639165” (CC0) via pxhere