An Experimental Study on the Role of Microthrombi in the Formation of Venous Thrombosis

The purpose of this paper is to clarify relationship between venous thrombosis and microthrombi on the intact endothelium. ADP-infusion caused a remarkable adhesion of platelets to the apparently unbroken endothelium of dog femoral vein and enhanced the development of microthrombi under partial stasis, and by these procedures, occlusive venous thrombus occurred very frequently under the serum-induced hypercoagulability without endothelial injury. It is concluded that ADP acts on platelets not only to aggregate to each other but to adhere to the intact endothelium and increased microthrombi play an im-portant role to promote formation of venous thrombus without endothelial injury.