<prompt> An intensive care patient develops sepsis. His blood pressure drops to 6015 mm Hg and he stas to bleed from venipuncture sites. Disseminated intravascular coagulation is suspected. Which of the following sets of stat laboratory values would confirm the likely diagnosis?Decreased PT, decreased PTT, decreased plateletsDecreased PT, elevated PTT, decreased plateletsDecreased PT, elevated PTT, elevated plateletsElevated PT, elevated PTT, decreased platelets  <response>: Disseminated intravascular coagulation DIC is a feared complication of many serious illnesses, including obstetric complications, sepsis, malignancies, and severe trauma. The most characteristic initiating event is formation and often subsequent lysis of microthrombi composed of platelets, fibrin, and coagulative factors. The consumption of coagulative factors leads to increased prothrombin time PT and paial thromboplastin time PTT. The consumption of platelets leads to a decreased platelet count. A more specific confirmatory test is an increase in fibrin split products, such as D-dimers. Characteristically, DIC clinically produces a mix of hemorrhagic and coagulative complications, and is difficult to treat because correcting the coagulative tendency tends to worsen the hemorrhage, and correcting the hemorrhagic tendency tends to worsen thrombotic complications. Ref: Arruda V.R. 2012. Chapter 116. Coagulation Disorders. In D.L. Longo, A.S. Fauci, D.L. Kasper, S.L. Hauser, J.L. Jameson, J. Loscalzo Eds, Harrisons Principles of Internal Medicine, 18e. 