A colleague asked George, can you please suggest a commercial normal and abnormal control one can use to test an assay that claims to distinguish normal from abnormal platelet function. Alternatively, suggest also please for preparing controls for research testing purposes. Specifically, how can we go about preparing a normal activity platelet control and an abnormal activity platelets control for research use.
I received a response from colleague and consultant Kirk Guyer, who wrote, unfortunately there are no commercial controls available for platelet function. A laboratory must identify a healthy normal individual from whom they may draw a fresh blood sample and test within three hours. Platelets have a short lifespan outside of the body. Depending on the agonist that is going to be tested, a specific antagonist such as aspirin may be added to the sample in-vitro to produce an abnormal sample to a specific agonist such as arachidonic acid.
It is true that there are no
From Dr. Favaloro: It is true that there are no commercial platelet function controls. It is possible to create in- house controls that will influence specific platelet aggregation parameters such as arachidonic acid (e.g., aspirin), or even other agonists. It is also possible to create controls for the PFA-100, something that we have published widely on. Please refer to:
• Favaloro EJ. Internal quality control and external quality assurance of platelet function tests. Semin Thromb Hemost 2009;35:139–149
• Favaloro EJ. Time for a conceptual shift in assessment of internal quality control for whole blood or cell based testing systems? An evaluation using platelet function and the PFA-100 as case example. Clin Chem Lab Med. 2013 ;51:767–74
• Favaloro EJ, Bonar R. External quality assessment/proficiency testing and internal quality control for the PFA-100 and PFA-200: an update. Semin Thromb Hemost. 2014;40:239–53.