β-THROMBOGLOBULIN LEVELS AND ORAL CONTRACEPTION

The frequency of increased values of beta-thromboglobulin (beta-TG) in patients with diseases such as diabetes and eclampsia which put them at risk of thromboembolism has been recorded. Others attribute a similar risk to the oestrogens in oral contraceptives but in these studies serum-beta-T.G. was not measured. Hougie and Sartwen et al. on the other hand did not find changes. We studied 110 normal volunteers aged 26-38 who had been taking Neogynona (0.25 mg norgestrel 50 ug ethinyloestradiol) for at least 1 year and up to 8 years. A control group of 35 normal women of similar age were not taking the pill. None of the women had had any vascular incidents during their pregnancies. Beta-TG was measured within 45 min of sampling. The venous stasis was obtained and controlled at 11 mm Hg pressure and blood was sampled with a 20G needle. Beta-TG was analysed by Radiochemical Centre Amersham kit the samples being processed on a Intertechnique GC 300 autogamma counter with a Hewlett-Packard computer. The mean beta-TG in our controls was 41 + or - 20(SD) ng/ml and this accords with other published values. In the 110 women on oral contraceptives beta-TG concentrations were 96 + or - 62 ng/ml and 40% of these women had concentrations above 80 ng/ml (control mean + 2SD). These results support the observations that oral-contraception with this preparation increases platelet aggregation.(FULL-TEXT)