The leukergy test in patients with ischemic heart disease

In search of a simple method for potential evaluation of leukocyte aggregation in states of infarction, we compared the leukergy test, which consists of leukocyte aggregation visualized in a peripheral blood test, to the neutrophil aggregation activity (NAA) test, which consists of in vitro aggregation of neutrophils from normal donors by a patient's plasma. Seventy-five patients participated in the study; 20 with ischemic heart disease and no infarction, 41 with relatively small myocardial infarctions, and 14 with large myocardial infarctions, the respective values of leukergy being 6.9 +/- 3.2, 10.8 +/- 4.6, and 20.5 +/- 14%. On the other hand, neutrophil aggregation activity was the same in a group of 10 patients without myocardial infarction and 10 with myocardial infarction. In these two groups, which showed no difference in the NAA test, the respective leukergy values were 4 +/- 1.5 and 21.7 +/- 10.6%. Thus leukergy correlates better with the clinical picture than does the NAA test.