The release of β‐ thromboglobulin and platelet factor 4 during extracorporeal circulation for open heart surgery

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Abstract
Cardiopulmonary bypass is extremely damaging to platelets and it causes a quantitative and qualitative alteration in their functions. We evaluated the release of two platelet‐specific proteins, β‐thromboglobulin (βTG) and platelet factor 4 (PF4), in patients who underwent extracorporeal circulation for open heart surgery. A parallel release (basal value βTG: 119.6 ng/ml, PF4 30 ng/ml) was present for both proteins in a time dependent fashion until the end of extracorporeal circulation. High average levels were observed in patients in whom the bypass was stopped after about 1 h (βTG 1606 ng/ml, PF4 745 ng/ml) and similarly in those in whom the bypass was stopped after about 2 h (βTG 1540 ng/ml, PF 4754 ng/ml). No correlation was found either between the level of PF4 and the additional heparin administered after the initial standard dose (r= 0.29, P>0.10) and between the level of PF4 and the amount of heparin consumed during the bypass (r= 0.05, P>0.5).