[Behavior of thrombocytes in low-dose heparin therapy]

In a little prospective study it could be shown that a series of 10-51 low dose heparin injections may be followed by slight or unspecific thrombocyte diminutions without specific heparin antibodies being available. Depending on stress and trauma potential complement activations caused by heparin histon complexes may result in insignificant thrombocyte diminutions by liberating those factors activating platelets from granulocytes. These are not bound to interrupt heparin therapy or heparin prophylaxis.