Blood Platelet Score Detects Previously Unmeasured Risk of Heart Attack and Stroke
Platelets are circulating cell fragments known to clump up and form blood clots that stop bleeding in injured vessels. Cardiologists have long known that platelets can become „hyperreactive“ to cause abnormal clotting that blocks arteries and contributes to heart attack, stroke, and poor blood flow (peripheral artery disease) in the legs of millions of Americans. Despite this major contribution to cardiovascular risk, routine measurement of whether each patient’s platelets clump (aggregate) too much has been infeasible to date. This is because results delivered by the method typically used to determine platelet activity, called platelet aggregometry, vary too much from lab to lab. To address this challenge, a new study, led by researchers at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, precisely identified a group of patients with platelet hyperreactivity, and then surveyed them to reveal 451 genes the activity of which differed…

