Platelet adhesiveness in coronary heart disease.

A simple reproducible method of determination of whole blood platelet adhesiveness, on columns of unsiliconised glass microbeads, was developed and validated. Platelet adhesiveness was determined in 180 subjects who were classified into four groups. The subjects of Groups I and II had negative cardiac stress and were free from coronary heart disease (CHD). While the 42 subjects of Group I had none of the conventional coronary risk factors, the 46 subjects of Group II had one or more coronary risk factors. Group III consisted of 68 subjects who had positive cardiac stress test. They were patients with myocardial ischemia. Group IV consisted of 24 survivors of myocardial infarction. The percent of subjects with platelet retention values exceeding 50.5% were, 9.5% in Group I, 26.1% in Group II, 32.4% in Group III and 37.5% in Group IV (p < 0.05). Although Group II consisted of subjects free from CHD, its difference from Group I, and closeness to Groups III and IV probably indicate that asymptomatic subjects with coronary risk factors and with increased platelet adhesiveness may be on the threshold of the symptomatic phase of CHD. Increased platelet adhesiveness may thus be a predictive marker of CHD.