Alkhamis T M, Beissinger R L, Chediak J R
Department of Chemical Engineering, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago 60616.
Biomaterials. 1993 Sep;14(11):865-70. doi: 10.1016/0142-9612(93)90009-q.
The effect of hirudin, a known inhibitor of thrombin, was evaluated for whole blood samples in terms of platelet deposition/adhesion to a non-biological test surface (tetrafluoroethylene-propylene copolymer), adenosine diphosphate (ADP) release and reduction in platelet count during laminar shear flow for a shear rate to 5680 s-1 (corresponding to a shear stress of about 150 dynes/cm2). Experiments were done in a cone-and-plate viscometer for samples of whole blood with and without the addition of hirudin. Whole blood samples containing hirudin showed about a 50% reduction in platelet surface coverage compared with blood samples not containing hirudin. Results on low-stress, shear-induced release of ADP showed that for shear rates of 2860 s-1 and above there was an increase in ADP release for the blood samples not containing hirudin compared with the hirudin-treated samples. However, no differences in haemoglobin leakage from red blood cells as well as residual platelet count following shear were observed between both types of blood samples.
