Study of platelet ultrastructure in ischemic heart disease

The present work was undertaken to study the ultrastructural morphology of blood platelets in angiographically proven patients of ischemic heart disease by scanning and transmission electron microscopy. Various morphological forms of platelets viz. discoid, pseudotubular, membranous, saccular, pseudopodical and hyaline were observed. They showed varying degrees of alterations in organelles and membrane systems. These morphological changes prove that platelets are in an activated state in ischemic heart disease, explaining the functional alterations that have been extensively studied in previous reports.