Low On-Treatment Platelet Reactivity Predicts Long-Term Risk of Bleeding After Elective PCI.

Background: Bleeding after percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI) is an important complication with impact on prognosis.

Aim: To evaluate the predictive value of enhanced platelet responsiveness to dual antiplatelet therapy with aspirin and clopidogrel, for bleeding, after elective PCI.

Methods And Results: We performed multiple electrode aggregometry (MAE) platelet functional tests induced by arachidonic acid (ASPI) and adenosine-diphosphate (ADP) before PCI, and 24 hours after PCI, in 481 elective PCI patients who were followed-up for an average of 15.

The use of acute normovolemic hemodilution in patients undergoing cardiac surgery.

Avoiding allogeneic blood transfusion during cardiac surgery and during the post-operative period is of great importance. Acute normovolemic hemodilution (ANH) is one of the options for blood salvage. We have prospectively analyzed 310 consecutive patients (pts) after different open heart procedures, operated on during April-May, 2000.