The irrelevance of adhesive platelet estimations after thrombosis.

It has been found that adhesive platelet counts are not of clinical use either after surgical operation or during long-term anticoagulant therapy in the detection of thrombosis. Calculation of the theoretical risk of development of platelet thrombi related to the platelet count suggests a possible reason for this absence of clinical significance. The evidence that platelet adhesiveness alters because of uncontrollable platelet variables and is controlled at least in part by plasma factors is discussed. The possibility of measuring the plasma factors is considered briefly.