Introduction General Overview for Flow Studies of Platelet Aggregation

1 INTRODUCTION GENERAL OVERVIEW FOR FLOW STUDIES OF PLATELET AGGREGATION 

Platelets will normally adhere to damaged vessel walls and to other activated platelets in flowing blood in the presence of predorrtirtantly ted blood cells present in greater than 99% by volume of all blood particles, and in the presence of white cells potentially reactive with the platelets. There ate many excellent reviews dealing with the flow properties of whole blood, including the macroscopic and microscopic behaviour of cells (1). There ate additionally many reports on studies of platelet adhesion Sum flowing whole blood onto vessel 

2 General physiology of platelet activation and a egation in flow 

We and others have shown that platelet aggregation in flow occurs in three steps 1) platelet activation and formation of pseudopods initiated within hundreds of milliseconds 

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