Fuster, V.

To quantitatively study platelet deposition on arterial prostheses and the effect of platelet inhibitory therapy with ticlopidine, 14 dogs underwent bilateral femoral artery excision and replacement with one polytetrafluoroethylene (Gore-Tex) and one autologous vein graft. Five dogs received 60 mg/kg/day of ticlopidine orally on four consecutive days prior to surgery. Nine untreated dogs served as controls. Collagen-induced platelet aggregometry studies were performed at the end of day 4. Autologous indium-111-labeled platelets were injected 24 hours prior to surgery to serve as aplatelet marker. All animals received heparin (1 mg/kg I.V.) 5 minutes prior to excision of the arterial segment. Grafts were removed 1 hour following resumption of blood flow and gently flushed with 30 cc normal saline. Radioactivity per unit weight of Gore-Tex, vein and blood was determined with a gamma counter. The relative radioactivity with respect to the internal reference standard, blood, is tabulated below.Ticlopidine treated dogs showed a 15-fold reduction in platelet deposition on Gore-Tex grafts and a 3-fold reduction on venous grafts. Platelet deposition was reduced significantly in Gore-Tex grafts (P<0.001) to a level comparable to that in autologous veins. Platelet inhibitory effect was also observed in collagen-induced platelet aggregometry.According to this “in vivo” data, ticlopidine appears to be a promising platelet inhibiting agent.