Investigating the clinical significance of platelet function disorder in patients with thrombocytopenia

Abstract

Objectives: This study aims to compare the clinical findings and laboratory values of patients hospitalized in our clinic with thrombocytopenia of different etiologies and who were performed closure time (CT) tests of collagen/adenosine diphosphate (ADP) and collagen/epinephrine for bleeding diathesis.
Patients and methods: Data of 42 patients (19 males, 23 females; mean age 67.8±1.6 years; range 30 to 98 years) who were hospitalized in our clinic between January 2015 and November 2015 were retrospectively analyzed.
Results: There was no significant relationship between patients’ platelet count and demographic and laboratory data. Collagen/ADP and collagen/ epinephrine CT values were inversely proportional to the number of platelets. There was no significant relationship between demographic data, laboratory tests and the Platelet Function Analyzer (PFA)-200 CT values when patients were grouped according to bleeding finding and diagnosis. However, hypoalbuminemia and collagen/ADP CT values above 270 seconds were associated with mortality. There was no significant relationship between patients’ PFA-200 CT value and hypoalbuminemia and other laboratory findings.
Conclusion: Restoration of platelet functions will be important regardless of the number of platelets when the collagen/ADP CT value is above 270 seconds in the presence of thrombocytopenia. PFA-200 CT values and hypoalbuminemia were found to be associated with mortality. However, the lack of statistical significance between CT and albumin levels suggests that PFA-200 CT value may not be used as a good acute phase reactant.