Semin Thromb Hemost 2019; 45(04): 423-428
DOI: 10.1055/s-0039-1688498
Letter to the Editor
Thieme Medical Publishers 333 Seventh Avenue, New York, NY 10001, USA.

Primary Thrombophilia XIV: Worldwide Identification of Sticky Platelet Syndrome

María Fernanda Vallejo-Villalobos
1   Hospital Christus Muguerza Betania de Puebla, Puebla, México
,
Gisela Berenice Gomez-Cruz
2   Centro de Hematología y Medicina Interna de Puebla, Puebla, México
3   School of Medicine, Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla, Puebla, México
,
Yahveth Cantero-Fortiz
2   Centro de Hematología y Medicina Interna de Puebla, Puebla, México
4   School of Medicine, Universidad de las Américas Puebla, Puebla, México
,
Juan Carlos Olivares-Gazca
2   Centro de Hematología y Medicina Interna de Puebla, Puebla, México
5   School of Medicine, Universidad Popular Autónoma del Estado de Puebla, Puebla, México
,
Mauricio Olivares-Gazca
2   Centro de Hematología y Medicina Interna de Puebla, Puebla, México
5   School of Medicine, Universidad Popular Autónoma del Estado de Puebla, Puebla, México
,
Iván Murrieta-Alvarez
2   Centro de Hematología y Medicina Interna de Puebla, Puebla, México
3   School of Medicine, Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla, Puebla, México
,
Virginia Reyes-Nuñez
5   School of Medicine, Universidad Popular Autónoma del Estado de Puebla, Puebla, México
6   Laboratorios Clínicos de Puebla, Puebla, México
,
Guillermo J. Ruiz-Argüelles
2   Centro de Hematología y Medicina Interna de Puebla, Puebla, México
5   School of Medicine, Universidad Popular Autónoma del Estado de Puebla, Puebla, México
› Author Affiliations
Further Information

Address for correspondence

Guillermo J. Ruiz-Argüelles, MD, FRCP (Glasg), MACP, Dsc (hon)
Centro de Hematología y Medicina Interna de Puebla
8B Sur 3710, 72530 Puebla
Mexico   

Publication History

Publication Date:
30 April 2019 (online)

 

Sticky platelet syndrome (SPS) is a prothrombotic platelet disorder characterized by increased in vitro platelet aggregation after activation with low concentrations of adenosine diphosphate and/or epinephrine.[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] [26] [27] [28] [29] [30] [31] [32] [33] [34] [35] [36] [37] [38] [39] [40] [41] [42] [43] [44] [45] [46] [47] [48] [49] [50] [51] [52] [53] [54] [55] [56] [57] [58] [59] [60] [61] [62] [63] [64] [65] [66] [67] Recently, Favaloro and Lippi[66] provided a commentary on the increasing number of papers published on SPS along the historical timeline, since its initial description in 1988,[3] and in response an update review was also published in this journal.[67] As noted in both reports,[66] [67] the condition is not recognized by all workers involved in the study for treatment of thrombophilic conditions. One reason to explain the fact that some researchers recognize SPS as a genuine thrombophilic condition whilst other do not is that not everybody employs the same criteria to define the condition. We and others,[11] [53] attempting to standardize its investigation, employ the criteria originally described by Mammen et al[3] to define SPS, and accordingly, our group has been able to show that around 15% of Mexican mestizo persons within the general normal population meet the criteria to identify them as bearers of SPS and that this figure goes up to 60% in Mexican mestizo patients with a clinical marker of inherited thrombophilia. Accordingly, we have been able to gather prospectively a group of 165 Mexican mestizo patients with SPS, 121 of whom (66.7%) display another thrombophilic condition in addition to SPS. Employing the database PubMed, we similarly looked for all entries using the term “sticky platelet,” either in the title and/or in the body of the abstract. The salient features of each publication were then further analyzed. The initial search identified a total of 108 papers. Forty-one of them included the combination of words but did not actually describe SPS and were accordingly discarded; 24 papers comprised reviews about SPS and 43 papers described either cases or series of patients; these latter 43 papers were further analyzed. The first paper describing patients with SPS was identified to be published in 1988, and was authored by Mammen et al.[3] Since then and until February 2019, as noted above, 67 papers were identified.[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] [26] [27] [28] [29] [30] [31] [32] [33] [34] [35] [36] [37] [38] [39] [40] [41] [42] [43] [44] [45] [46] [47] [48] [49] [50] [51] [52] [53] [54] [55] [56] [57] [58] [59] [60] [61] [62] [63] [64] [65] [66] [67] [Fig. 1] depicts the number of papers published as a cumulative timeline, whereas [Fig. 2] depicts the countries in which these papers were published. It is interesting to note that the country with the largest number of papers published on SPS is the United States with a total of 14, followed by Slovakia with 12, Germany with 8, and México with 6, whereas Hungary, Turkey, Russia, and New Zealand had only 1 publication each. What is also interesting is the absence of reports from most other geographies ([Fig. 2]).

Zoom
Fig. 1 Cumulative frequency distribution curve along time of papers published on the sticky platelet syndrome between 1988 and 2018 inclusive.
Zoom
Fig. 2 Countries in which the sticky platelet syndrome has been described between 1988 and 2018 inclusive.

A total of 1,783 patients with SPS have been described and published in these 30 years (1988–2019) of reports. The rate of description of these cases has increased in the last 10 years ([Fig. 1]). The most number of cases have been identified and published in Slovakia (n = 845), followed by the United States (n = 451), México (n = 322), Germany (n = 88), and Russia (n = 70). The thromboses identified in these patients were both venous and arterial; in some patients SPS was identified together with another thrombophilic condition, either inherited or acquired. [Table 1] gathers the salient information from all these publications. Most patients (72%) were treated with aspirin and/or other antiplatelet drugs, whereas 27% were given oral anticoagulants or heparin.

Table 1

Salient features of the patients with the sticky platelet syndrome who have been described in different countries between 1988 and 2018 inclusive

Author

Country

Year

Cases

Location of thrombosis

Treatment

Mammen et al [3]

United States

1988

?

MI

Aspirin

Berg-Dammer et al [4]

Germany

1997

2

Superior sagittal sinus/middle cerebral artery/left subclavian/left vertebral artery

Heparin/aspirin/catheter/thrombolysis

Baker and Bick [6]

United States

1999

153

DVT/stroke/MI/retinal vein

Aspirin

Chaturvedi and Dzieczkowski [8]

United States

1999

1

Acute stroke

Heparin/warfarin

Bick [10]

United States

2000

21

Recurrent miscarriage

Aspirin

Weber et al [12]

Germany

2002

34

DVT/retinal vein thrombosis/portal vein thrombosis/pulmonary embolism

Heparin/aspirin

Frenkel and Mammen [15]

United States

2003

200

Acute stroke, DVT

Aspirin 81 mg/d

Lewerenz et al [17]

Germany

2004

1

Acute stroke/MI

Aspirin

Kahles et al [21]

Germany

2006

1

Acute myocardial infarction/pulmonary embolism

Abciximab/stent/antiplatelet therapy/t-PA/heparin

Kubisz et al [20]

Slovakia

2006

128

Acute stroke/MI/DVT/recurrent miscarriage

Fodor et al [23]

Hungary

2007

1

Left internal carotid artery

Aspirin 300 mg/d

Mühlfeld et al [25]

United States

2007

3

Renal allograft rejection/colonic microinfarctions/pulmonary embolism/DVT

Heparin/aspirin

Randhawa and Van Stavern [26]

New Zealand

2007

1

Ischemic optic neuropathy

Aspirin 81 mg/d

Ruiz-Argüelles et al [24]

Mexico

2007

46

Thrombosis at younger than 40/recurrent thrombosis/thrombosis in unusual sites

Aspirin

El-Amm et al [27]

United States

2008

3

Renal allograft rejection

Aspirin

Mears and Van Stavern [29]

United States

2009

1

Ischemic optic neuropathy

Aspirin 81 mg/d

Sand et al [28]

Germany

2009

1

Cutaneous microembolism on fingers

Heparin/aspirin

Bojalian et al [3]

United States

2010

1

Popliteal artery/renal and splenic infarction/left axillar artery/left subclavian artery/left internal jugular vein

Heparin/embolectomy/aspirin

Loeffelbein et al [32]

Germany

2010

1

Venous and arterial flap thrombosis

Aspirin

Alexandra et al [34]

United States

2011

1

Retinal vein

Aspirin

Gehoff et al [36]

Germany

2011

1

Acute stroke

Aspirin

Rac et al [35]

United States

2011

1

Recurrent miscarriage

Aspirin 325 mg/d

Kotuličová et al [40]

Slovakia

2012

77

Pulmonary embolism/DVT/MI/acute stroke

Kubisz et al [38]

Slovakia

2012

9

2 DVT/4 arterial (acute stroke, MI, arterial thrombosis)/3 both

Sokol et al [39]

Slovakia

2012

27

Recurrent miscarriage

Aspirin

Darulová et al [44]

United States

2013

1

Pulmonary embolism

Alteplase/heparin

Ruiz-Argüelles et al [47]

Mexico

2013

100

Thrombosis at younger than 40/recurrent thrombosis/thrombosis in unusual sites

Aspirin

Šimonová et al [46]

Slovakia

2013

9

Cerebral venous thrombosis/DVT/pulmonary embolism/acute stroke/MI

Heparin/aspirin

Tekgündüz et al [42]

Turkey

2013

6

History of thrombosis

Aspirin 100 mg/d

Vasil'ev et al [41]

Russia

2013

70

Thrombosis

Heparin/aspirin

Castillo-Martínez et al [52]

Mexico

2014

1

Cutaneous limb veins

Aspirin 81 mg/d

Hayes et al [51]

United States

2014

64

Acute stroke/DVT/MI

Aspirin

Kubisz [48]

Slovakia

2014

71

Acute stroke

Ruiz-Arguelles [50]

Mexico

2014

95

Thrombosis at younger than 40/recurrent thrombosis/thrombosis in unusual sites

Aspirin

Alsheekh et al [55]

United States

2015

1

Carotid artery

Abciximab/thrombectomy

Sokol et al [53]

Slovakia

2015

23

Recurrent miscarriage

Aspirin

Sokol et al [56]

Slovakia

2015

20

Recurrent miscarriage

Aspirin

Yagmur et al [54]

Germany

2015

48

TIA/ DVT/pulmonary embolism/renal infarction

Heparin/aspirin

Ruiz-Delgado et al [60]

Mexico

2017

77

Recurrent miscarriage

Aspirin

Škereňová et al [63]

Slovakia

2018

37

Recurrent miscarriage

Aspirin

Sokol et al [65]

Slovakia

2018

84

DVT

Aspirin

Sokol et al [62]

Slovakia

2018

360

DVT/pulmonary embolism/MI/miscarriage/migraine

Aspirin 325 mg/d

Solis-Jimenez et al [61]

Mexico

2018

1

Renal allograft rejection (renal infarction)

Nephrectomy/aspirin

Abbreviations: DVT, deep vein thrombosis; MI, myocardial infarction; t-PA, tissue plasminogen activator.


According to several publications, SPS is thought, at least by several investigators, to be the most common inherited prothrombotic platelet defect and thus likely to be of the greatest clinical importance.[49] The recognition of SPS as a genuine entity has prompted the development of both promoters and opponents to the concept.[66] [67] Up to now, the lack of a definite molecular basis for the condition has been a major obstacle for its acceptance by many as a distinct entity and several skeptical scientists remain reluctant to consider this disease as a true distinct clinicopathological entity.[49] [66] [67] On the other hand, unlike plasma-based hemostasis research work, the study of SPS requires fresh patient material and highly meticulous sample collection and handling; as a consequence, the patients under investigation require blood collection at the time of investigation, and then platelet function testing needs to be performed immediately afterwards by experienced personnel. Some hemostasis experts still consider the aberrant platelet aggregation responses seen in this condition as laboratory artifacts[49]; however, SPS seems to be building up an increasing belief base, if we accept that the increasing publication rate on the topic (66; [Fig. 1]), coupled with the additional information presented here, represents increasing acceptance of SPS as a prothrombotic condition. Taking into account the number of inhabitants in each of the countries which have reported cases of the SPS, it is clear that the countries which have made the most contributions on SPS per number of inhabitants are Slovakia and México; this finding reflects mainly the interest in the condition of groups of scientists living in these two countries, headed by professors Peter Kubisz in Slovakia and Guillermo Ruiz-Argüelles in México.[49] We hope that the presentation of this information will result in the development of additional interest in other investigators who could eventually contribute to the better understanding and acceptance of the syndrome, its pathophysiology and treatment, with the goal of helping patients afflicted by thrombophilia, which is currently one of the leading causes of death in developed societies.


Conflicts of Interest

The authors disclose no conflicts of interest.


Address for correspondence

Guillermo J. Ruiz-Argüelles, MD, FRCP (Glasg), MACP, Dsc (hon)
Centro de Hematología y Medicina Interna de Puebla
8B Sur 3710, 72530 Puebla
Mexico   


Zoom
Fig. 1 Cumulative frequency distribution curve along time of papers published on the sticky platelet syndrome between 1988 and 2018 inclusive.
Zoom
Fig. 2 Countries in which the sticky platelet syndrome has been described between 1988 and 2018 inclusive.