Background: Coated-platelets are a subset of platelets with procoagulant potential observed upon dual agonist stimulation with collagen and thrombin.
Objective: The goal was to investigate if coated-platelet production differs between patients with lacunar ischemic stroke and non-lacunar (cortical) ischemic stroke as compared with controls.
Patients and methods: Blood samples from 60 patients with ischemic stroke (20 lacunar and 40 cortical) and 70 controls were analyzed for coated-platelet production.
Results: Coated-platelet production was significantly lower in patients with lacunar stroke (21.8 +/- 11.4%, mean +/- 1 SD) as compared with either controls (31.6 +/- 13.2%, P = 0.008) or patients with cortical stroke (39.4 +/- 12.7%, P < 0.001). The increase in coated-platelets for patients with cortical stroke as compared with controls was also significant (P = 0.008).
Conclusions: Our results indicate a marked difference in coated-platelet synthesis in lacunar vs. non-lacunar stroke, thereby providing additional support for the existence of distinct pathological processes underlying these two subtypes of ischemic stroke. Further investigation of the role of coated-platelets in stroke, taking into account these preliminary findings, is warranted.