Comparison of Rapid Platelet Function Assay with Whole Blood Platelet Impedance Aggregometry for the Definition of Aspirin Resistance.

The reported incidence of aspirin (ASA) resistance ranges from 5 to 30%. Various platelet function assays have been employed to detect aspirin resistance in patients with cardio- and cerebrovascular disease. Such a high proposed incidence of ASA resistance poses a critical need for a rapid point-of -care (POC) platelet function test. Unfortunately, no uniformly accepted definition of ASA resistance exists. Platelet aggregation studies that have been used to define ASA resistance are time consuming and require special technical expertise. The Ultegra Rapid Platelet Function -ASA (RPFA-ASA) has been developed as a POC test that is performed without sample processing. This optical method measures agglutination of fibrinogen-coated beads upon platelet activation with arachidonic acid. In the presence of aspirin effect, however, the agglutination of the beads is inhibited. The described cutoff of ≥ 550 Aspirin Reaction Units (ARU) is termed non-responsiveness to ASA based on a preclinical study and subsequent correlation with epinephrine-induced platelet aggregation in platelet rich plasma. Since RPFA-ASA uses whole blood, we validated its performance characteristics against a classic whole blood platelet aggregation assay (WBA). We studied 50 healthy volunteers, aged 25–75 (24 men, 26 women) with normal CBC, who had not ingested anti-platelet drugs for 14 days prior to the study. Baseline studies included WBA (dual channel aggregometer, Chrono-log Inc., Havertown, PA) using both arachidonic acid (AA -0.5; 0.25 mM) and collagen (1; 2 μg/mL) as well as an RPFA-ASA assay (Accumetrics Inc., San Diego, CA). These studies were repeated after 3 days of ASA (325 mg/d) intake. Based on a review of the literature, we defined an adequate ASA response as a completely inhibited AA-induced platelet aggregation and at least 30% inhibition of collagen-induced aggregation (both concentrations of the agonist). Thus, those with < 30% inhibition of aggregation response to collagen were considered ASA resistant. Eleven subjects were ASA resistant by WBA (20%; 8 females and 3 males (aged 25–63). In contrast, since all 50 subjects achieved ARU values of < 550 ARU, none were recognized as an ASA non-responder by the RPFA-ASA. While the current cutoff of < 550 ARU posed by the Ultegra RPFA-ASA does identify those who have taken ASA, the assay is unable to recognize ASA non-responders. Thus, based on these data, the appropriate cutoff for the recognition of ASA resistance by the RPFA-ASA should be re-adjusted to a significantly lower level to ensure appropriate assay results.