In Hadassah Hospital’s Coagulation Unit, researchers have developed an innovative technique for testing platelet function in real time and under particular physiological conditions. This includes testing reactions to aspirin. The advantage of this technique is that, contrary to its predecessors, which required a large volume of blood, an experienced technician, and a long examination period, it only requires a minute amount of blood (0.13 ml) and about five minutes.
The researchers predict that in the future, when we are able to administer these diagnostic tests at the patient’s bedside, it will be possible to provide customized treatment to each patient and thus reduce the risk of repeated cardiac events.
With this technique, doctors have been able to determine that a heart patient’s platelet function before surgery will predict the rate of hemorrhage and the need for blood product infusions after surgery. In the future, it will be possible to integrate this test into the pre-surgical assessment and to monitor the patient’s platelet function during the surgery itself.
