Filip P A Casselman, Marcus D Lance, Aamer Ahmed, Alice Ascari, Juan Blanco-Morillo, Daniel Bolliger, Maroua Eid, Gabor Erdoes, Renard Gerhardus Haumann, A

Summary: Impaired platelet function is a major risk factor for peri‐operative bleeding and transfusion. This prospective, observational study enrolled 101 consecutive patients undergoing elective cardiac surgery with cardiopulmonary bypass. Platelet function was assessed by two whole blood impedance aggregometers ( ROTEM ^® platelet and Multiplate ^® ), using three different activators (arachidonic acid, adenosine diphosphate and thrombin receptor‐activating peptide‐6), at three peri‐operative time points (before anaesthesia, after aortic declamping and 5–10 min after protamine administration). Platelet function was impaired over the time‐course in all assays. Results after protamine administration demonstrated the best correlation with postoperative chest tube drainage. Patients with a chest tube drainage exceeding the 75th percentile of the entire study population, during the first 24 postoperative hours, were characterised to have excessive bleeding. Both devices provided similar predictability for postoperative chest tube drainage and red blood cell transfusion requirements. The latter was associated with the degree of platelet inhibition and the number of pathways inhibited determined respective cut‐off values.

We suggest that the stable gastric pentadecapeptide BPC 157 may rescue thrombocyte function. We focused on the antithrombotic agent aspirin, clopidogrel, and cilostazol application in rats; arachidonic acid, ADP, collagen, and arachidonic acid/PGE1 platelet aggregation (aggregometry) and blood clot viscoelastic properties (thromboelastometry); and the pentadecapeptide BPC 157. Rats received intragastrically for three days once daily treatment with antithrombotic agents—aspirin (10 mg/kg) or clopidogrel (10 mg/kg) or cilostazol (10 mg/kg). Medication (BPC 157 (10 μg/kg) or an equal volume of saline (5 ml/kg)) was given intragastrically, immediately after each antithrombotic agent application. For multiple electrode aggregometry and modified rotational thromboelastometry studies, blood sampling was at 2 h after last application. Adenosine diphosphate (ADP test 6.5 μM), arachidonic acid (ASPI test 0.5 mM), a combination of arachidonic acid and prostaglandin E1 (ASPI test 0.5 mM and PGE1-test 30 nM), and collagen (COL test 3.2 μg/ml) were used as aggregation agonists. Given with aspirin, clopidogrel, or cilostazol in rats, BPC 157 counteracted their inhibitory effects on aggregation activated by arachidonic acid, ADP, collagen, and arachidonic acid/PGE1. Specifically, this includes recovery of the aggregation induced by arachidonic acid (vs. aspirin, vs. clopidogrel, and vs. cilostazol), arachidonic acid/PGE1 (vs. cilostazol), ADP (vs. clopidogrel), or collagen (vs. clopidogrel). Contrarily, there is no effect on the used tests (extrinsic/intrinsic hemostasis system, the fibrin part of the clot) EXTEM, INTEM, and FIBTEM; clotting time; clot formation time; alpha-angle; maximum clot firmness; lysis index after 30 minutes; and maximum lysis. In conclusion, we revealed that BPC 157 largely rescues thrombocyte function.