Figure 1.
Selection of the study population.
The enrolment details of the study population are shown, including the number of patients excluded because of the use of antiplatelet drugs or because there was no information on use of these drugs. For all subgroups, the number of available test results for PFA-100 with Col-Epi and Col-ADP is given.
Table 1.
Characteristics of patients with liver cirrhosis.
Figure 2.
Results for PFA-100 in cirrhotic patients.
Overall, mean closure times were above the upper limit of normal for Col-Epi (>165 s) and Col-ADP (>118 s) in cirrhotic patients. There were no significant differences between patients with different Child-Turcotte-Pugh scores.
Table 2.
Results for PFA-100, full blood count, and vWF.
Figure 3.
Effect of von Willebrand factor on primary hemostasis in thrombocytopenic patients with liver cirrhosis.
Increased levels of vWF were associated with maintained normal primary hemostasis in patients with liver cirrhosis and reduced platelet count (<150/nL). vWF-antigen and vWF-activity were higher in patients with normal results for PFA-100 after measuring with Col-Epi and Col-ADP (A+B). Substitution of recombinant vWF (r-vWF) resulted in improved primary hemostasis as compared to unmodified samples (C). Addition of a 66-µg or 165-µg polyclonal anti-vWF-antibody levels led to prolonged closure times compared to unmodified control samples (D+E). Horizontal lines represent the upper limit of normal for closure times with Col-Epi or Col-ADP [**: P<0.01, *: P<0.05].
Table 3.
Analysis of the effect of vWF on results of PFA-100 in thrombocytopenic patients.
Table 4.
Effect of vWF levels on primary hemostasis in thrombocytopenic patients with cirrhosis.
Table 5.
Results for univariate analysis of predictors of a pathological PFA-100 test result.
Table 6.
Results for multivariate analysis of predictors of a pathological PFA-100 test result.