Clinical application of radiolabelled platelets

The increasing number of therapeutic modalities available for the management of patients with thromboembolic complications, such as fibrinolytic treatment or vascular surgery, require the development of new imaging techniques to provide more information on the xtent, age and activity of the thromboembolic material causing clinical symptoms. Since the introduction of radiolabelling of platelets with indium-111, platelet scintigraphy (PSC) has been used as a tool in the diagnosis of various thromboembolic diseases. During the International Symposium on Radiolabelled Platelets scientists from a variety of medical backgrounds presented their results on the clinical applictions of radiolabelled platelets. The papers presented there have been updated to take account of the latest results before publication in this volume. The papers are grouped into six sections on platelet labelling techniques, radiolabelled platelets in cardiology, monitoring of antiplatelet therapy, platelet scintigraphy in stroke patients, platelet scintigraphy in angiology, and platelet scintigraphy in hematology and other clinical applications, including renal transplant rejection. refs.; figs.; tabs