Effect of schistosomal infection on some functional activities of blood platelets

The present study deals with the quantitative and the qualitative platelet functions and their relation to the different stages of hepatosplenic schistosomiasis. The work has been carried on 40 subjects as non-bilharzial control, and 54 patients with schistosomiasis in the different stages of the disease. The statistical analysis of the results obtained, showed no difference in both the quantitative and the qualitative platelet functions in the early active intestinal bilharziasis, when compared to the non-bilharzial control group. The impairment in the platelet functions started to be evident in the group of hepatosplenomegalic bilharziasis and became most obvious in the splenomegalic and ascitic stages. This denotes that there was a correlation between the impairment of both the quantitative and the qualitative platelet functions and the progress of the disease.