A comparison of methods of data analysis to evaluate blood platelet survival

The purpose of this study was to validate the mean platelet survival time (MST) calculated by the weighted mean and multiple-hit models over a wide clinical spectrum, including linear age dependent survival curves and curvilinear curves of random destruction of the platelets. The results indicate that with In-111 labeled platelets, the weighted estimate of the mean survival time (WMST) and the multiple-hit theory (MHST) correlate over a wide spectrum of survival times. Either method may thus be used to calculated MST. The multiple-hit model has some advantage since it also gives an indication of the shape of the survival curve. This was verified by the goodness of fit evaluation of the linear and exponential functions. It is concluded that the multiple-hit model is a useful method to calculate mean platelet survival time and to evaluate the shape of the survival curve