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The article discusses a study focusing on mean platelet volume (MPV) in blood samples collected in different anticoagulants from thrombocytopenic patients as well as healthy persons. Topics discussed include the use of tripotassium-ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (K3EDTA) in measuring MPV in blood samples, the number of patients in the study who had acquired thrombocytopenia, and high MPV count in K3EDTA-anticoagulated blood samples.

Platelets play a central role in physiological hemostasis and also in pathological thrombosis. It is well established that congenital or acquired abnormalities of platelet function are associated with a heightened risk of bleeding of variable severity and excessive hemorrhage after surgery or trauma. Several kinds of different platelet function tests have been developed over the years to identify or diagnose platelet function disorders. The use of these tests for the assessment of thrombotic risk or for monitoring the effects of drugs inhibiting platelet function is not well established. Light transmission aggregometry ( LTA) is the gold standard for the study of patients with defects of platelet function. Its results are affected by several pre-analytical and analytical variables. The Subcommittee on Platelet Physiology of the Scientific and Standardization Committee of the International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis published official guidelines for the standardization of the variables affecting LTA, which should be followed to harmonize the procedures across different laboratories worldwide. The lumi-aggregometer, a modification of LTA that measures platelet secretion in parallel with aggregation, is preferable to LTA for diagnosing inherited defects of platelet function, because it is more sensitive to the most common disorders, which are characterized by abnormalities of platelet secretion. LTA (or lumi-aggregometry) is useful as a first screening test of patients with the clinical suspicion of defects of platelet function, because it helps to provide an interim diagnostic hypothesis, which can then be confirmed or discounted using appropriate and specific tests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although specific assays of coagulation factors are essential for diagnostic purposes they only give partial information about an individual's haemostatic state. This can be better assessed by various global tests, and recent developments and evaluations of five such tests are described in this symposium: the PFA-100; waveform analysis; thrombin generation; overall haemostasis potential; thrombelastography. Each test has advantages in various applications, but the thrombin generation test and waveform analysis have been found most useful in haemophilia, whilst the PFA-100 is helpful in von Willebrand's disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mass spectrometric behaviour of four new macrocyclic compounds, all containing the 1,3,5-triazine moiety, was studied with the aid of different ionization methods and mass-analysed ion kinetic energy Spectrometry. Extensive fragmentation of the oligoethylene glycol side-chains is observed, with the usual loss of C2H4O units. The favoured cleavage of the ethereal bond nearest to the etherocyclic ring gives rise to both complementary ions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mass spectra of a series of differently substituted coumarins were obtained by high- and low-energy collision experiments. The results obtained by the two techniques show peculiar differences, mainly in the presence, under ion trap conditions, of a high relative abundance of M+·. The results support the validity of the ion trap technique basic studies of mass Spectrometry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]