Phagocytic activity of platelets in patients with myocardial infarction

The aim of our present study was to analyse the dynamics of changes in the phagocytic activity of platelets with myocardial infarction according to the treatment applied. Twenty patients with acute myocardial infarction and thirty healthy subjects were examined. Platelet count, phagocytic activity of platelets and the phagocytic index were determined. We observed reduced phagocytic activity of platelets in the first 24 hours of infarction, which may be due to exhaustion of most active platelets in a thrombus and microaggregates. A transitory increase in the phagocytosis activity of platelets observed on the third day of infarction may be caused by the release of large, more active platelets from splenic pool. On the eight day of infarction, the phagocytic activity of platelets became normalized in both experimental groups. Our study indicates that together with platelet activation the phagocytic activity gets reduced being a likely response to the thrombocytopenic factor. This can be confirmed by the increased number of platelets on the 8th day. Our results suggest a slightly attenuated phagocytic ability of platelets, irrespective of the treatment applied. The reduction seems to result from the effect of platelets exhaustion on the procoagulative activity in patients with myocardial infarction.