THE RELATION OF BLOOD PLATELETS TO HEMORRHAGIC DISEASE

Abstract

It is my purpose in this paper to report three cases and experiments which furnish additional evidence to show that the blood platelets play a part in stopping hemorrhage, and that one type of hemorrhagic disease may be attributed to an extreme reduction in the number of platelets. The cases possibly explain the relief which sometimes follows transfusion in hemorrhagic disease. It is my purpose also to describe a method for studying hemorrhage called the bleeding time, and to describe briefly a simple method for determining the coagulation time. In the cases there was marked hemorrhagic diathesis, a normal coagulation time, and almost an absence of platelets. Transfusion was performed in each case. After transfusion there was a marked increase in the number of platelets and remarkable relief of hemorrhage. When the platelet counts returned to their previous low level, hemorrhages returned. Later in the course of the disease in