Factors contributing to individual propensity for arterial thrombosis

Occurrence of arterial thrombosis secondary to vascular disease in an individual is not easily predicted. After establishing that this poor predictability arises at least in part from an intrinsic thrombosis propensity of the individual, we sought to determine whether the propensity for arterial thrombosis is governed by blood or arterial wall factors.

To evaluate the variability arising from the blood, autologous 111In-labeled platelet deposition was measured after high-shear perfusion of compressed aortic strips, prepared from a single pig, with heparinized blood from 25 pigs. To evaluate the variability arising from the vessel wall, aortic strips from 8 pigs were superfused with blood from a single animal. Blood samples from 25 animals superfused over aortic substrate from a single source yielded a 24-fold range of platelet deposition. In contrast, when aortic substrates from 8 different animals were superfused with blood from a single animal, platelet deposition spanned a 3-fold range. Platelet deposition was significantly correlated with whole-blood lymphocyte counts and with platelet counts.

Individual propensity for arterial thrombosis in pigs is more greatly influenced by blood components than by elements within the arterial wall.