Thrombocytopenia induced by pulmonary artery flotation catheters. A prospective study.

The platelet counts of patients with PAFC were studied prospectively, 45 patients admitted to the ICU during the same period of time, who did not require PAFC were used as a control group. We had previously excluded any other cause of thrombocytopenia in both groups of patients. We found a significant platelet decrease in the PAFC group at 6 h (p less than 0.001), 24 h (p less than 0.001), 48 h (p less than 0.001) and 72 h (p less than 0.001) after catheter placement, compared to the control group. This decrease was early and sharp and disappeared quickly after catheter removal. We believe that thrombocytopenia in these patients is of peripheral origin and is due to an increased consumption of platelets.