Platelet Antibody Detection

In the past 40 years a plethora of publications has appeared in the literature, which describe methods to detect platelet antibodies in sera or bound to cells of patients in various clinical conditions. These methods can be broadly subdivided by the principle on which they are based into methods that measure: a. The functional effect that antibodies may have on platelets, such as the induction of aggregation and release or just the opposite, i.e. the inhibition of these processes. b. The immunologic effect that antibodies may have on platelets such as agglutination, complement fixation, complement dependent cytotoxicity or 51Cr-release, cell mediated cytotoxicity and immunophagocytosis. c. The binding of immunoglobulins and/or complement to platelets, either directly or indirectly.