Monitoring of antiplatelet therapy. Current limitations, challenges, and perspectives

Screening of platelet function can be performed by point-of-care testing followed by platelet aggregometry in response to agonists such as collagen, adenosine diphosphate, epinephrine, and arachidonic acid. Despite in use for decades, this technique is not well standardized. Monitoring of antiplatelet therapy is increasingly applied in patients at high risk for re-thrombosis or bleeding. To assess pharmacological inhibition of platelet function, agonist-induced platelet aggregation, thromboxane B2 (TxB2) and vasodilator-stimulated protein phosphorylation (VASP) are being measured. While serum TxB2 levels of < 2 ng/ml reflect aspirin-induced inhibition of cyclo-oxygenase-1 activity with high sensitivity, VASP exhibits a wide variability upon treatment with clopidogrel or prasugrel. Multiple studies reveal an association between high residual platelet reactivity and adverse cardiovascular events in patients on antiplatelet therapy. However, despite the plethora of platelet function assays currently under investigation, their use in daily practice cannot be recommended. This is due to several reasons: (i) there is no consensus on the method and a respective cut-off value associated with clinical adverse outcome, and (ii) data demonstrating any benefit of tailored antiplatelet therapy and its monitoring (based on assessment of platelet functions) are still limited. Thus, appropriate identification of 'resistant' or 'poor responders' to antiplatelet agents remains challenging in clinical practice.