Blood
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Platelet von Willebrand factor (vWF) has been suggested to play an important role in the hemostatic process. Clinical and experimental data indicate that bleeding time (BT) and platelet-vessel wall interaction cannot be normalized unless the defect of platelet vWF is also corrected. We have examined the effect of normal platelet concentrate transfusion 1 hour after cryoprecipitate infusion in five type III von Willebrand disease (vWD) patients. ⋯ In the perfusion study, cryoprecipitate infusion only resulted in a slight increase in platelet deposition (surface coverage range: 2.4% to 11.3%), whereas the platelet concentrate transfusion elicited a more marked improvement (range: 8.2% to 26.4%; P less than .02 v post-cryoprecipitate). These results suggest an important in vivo role of the platelet vWF in supporting platelet-vessel wall interaction. They also give support to the occasional addition of normal platelet transfusion to the cryoprecipitate infusion for the control of serious bleeding episodes resistant to cryoprecipitate in severe vWD patients.
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In disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) with acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) in the absence of severe infection, marked fibrinolysis was noted in comparison with normal levels of antithrombin III, which is a major inhibitor of the coagulation system. Increased plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) antigen levels in plasma from patients with septicemia decreased the ratio of the plasma clot lysis rate induced by an anti-alpha 2-plasmin inhibitor monoclonal antibody to the tissue-type plasminogen activator (t-PA) concentration. This decrease was not as prominent in plasma from patients with DIC, especially those with APL. ⋯ The specific activity of PAI-1 decreased in patients with DIC (43.7% +/- 30.6%) and in DIC cases with APL (10.3% +/- 6.0%) in comparison to patients with septicemia (83.7% +/- 20.2%) or normal controls (85.8% +/- 27.3%). In DIC associated with APL, degraded forms of PAI-1 were detected in plasma by immunoblotting. These results suggest that a decrease in the specific activity of PAI-1 and an increase in secondary fibrinolysis result in a hyperfibrinolytic state in DIC patients with APL.