[The thrombocyte function of bronchial asthma patients]

The functional characteristics of platelets were estimated in patients with different asthma forms (atopic, aspirin-sensitive and mixed ones). It was shown that platelets of asthmatics with the atopic and aspirin-sensitive disease forms are more sensitive to the stimulating action of platelet activating factor (PAF) in aggregation response and intracellular Ca2+ influx induction than platelets of patients suffering mostly from the recurrent bronchopulmonary infections with atopic component (so-called "mixed" asthma) and more activated than platelets of healthy donors. Intracellular Ca2+ influx was measured using the fluorescent probe Fura-2 in platelet suspension. Platelet aggregation was measured on aggregometer by two methods (Born's method and correlational photometric method) in platelet-rich plasma. PAF was used as inductor of platelet aggregation and fluorescence response. The antiallergic drugs ketotifen and sodium cromoglycate (intal) caused a 30-40% inhibition of PAF-induced aggregation of asthmatics' and healthy donors' platelets. It may be concluded that platelets of atopic and aspirin asthmatics are more active, their "hyper-reaction" to PAF is expressed by higher aggregability and the lower PAF concentration threshold.