Platelet function in patients on maintenance hemodialysis: depressed or enhanced?

Uremic patients on long-term hemodialysis show a paradoxical association of hemorrhages on the one hand and thrombotic complications or atherosclerosis on the other. Platelet function has been found to be depressed in some cases but enhanced in others. In 19 patients, both platelet aggregation and prostaglandin formation appeared to be significantly enhanced in response to low concentrations of arachidonic acid but significantly reduced with high concentrations. It is suggested that this double functional abnormality of uremic platelets may contribute to the complex vascular disturbances of hemodialyzed patients.