Platelets Haemostasis And Inflammation

The book depicts the various roles of platelets in a variety of cardio-metabolic diseases. Traditional and non-traditional platelet functions are described in detail in atherosclerosis, metabolic syndrome, diabetes, myocardial infarction, and other vascular pathologies. Particular focus is put on platelets as a link between haemostasis and inflammation contributing to both. Last but not least the books links the most recent advances in basic sciences with promising novel therapeutic applications and first results of clinical trials. The book is written for biomedical scientists in the sub disciplines vascular biology, biochemistry and immunology; and it as well will be of interest and value for academic physicians like cardiologists, hematologists, general internists and vascular surgeons.

New updated edition first published with Cambridge University Press. This new edition includes 29 chapters on topics as diverse as pathophysiology of atherosclerosis, vascular haemodynamics, haemostasis, thrombophilia and post-amputation pain syndromes.

This book reviews current science and applications in fields including thrombosis and hemostasis, signal transduction, and non-thrombotic conditions such as inflammation, allergy and tumor metastasis. It is a detailed, up-to-date, highly referenced text for clinical scientists and physicians, including recent developments in this rapidly expanding field. More than a scientific resource, this is also an authoritative reference and guide to the diagnosis.

Platelets are essential mediators of the physiologic process of hemostasis and pathologic thrombosis. While platelets do not interact with vascular walls under normal conditions, vascular injury or inflammation result in a coordinated series of events including platelet adhesion, aggregation, and promotion of coagulation. In this review, we describe the primary mechanisms involved in these responses in various vascular beds of both macro- and microvessels, and outline key unresolved aspects of these important interactions.

Platelets play a key role in thrombosis and haemostasis. However recent evidence clearly demonstrates that the functional role of platelets extends to many other processes in the body. With an internationally recognised list of contributing authors, The Non-Thrombotic Role of Platelets in Health and Disease, is a unique and definitive source of state-of-the-art knowledge about the additional role of platelets outside thrombosis and haemostasis. The intended audience for The Non-Thrombotic Role of Platelets in Health and Disease includes platelet biologists, microbiologists, immunologists, haematologists, oncologists, respiratory physicians, cardiologists, neurobiologists, tissue engineers, as well as students and fellows in these areas.

This issue reviews inflammation, hemostasis, and blood conservation strategies in patients following surgery, trauma, or complex injuries, and focuses on coagulopathies due to multiple factors including hemorrhage, surgical injuries, or drugs that affect the hemostatic system. Hemostasis and therapeutic approaches for bleeding and medical patients are discussed, including important aspects of thrombin signaling, protease activated receptor involvement, platelet dysfunction, and clot stabilization.The increasing problem of heparin-induced thrombocytopenia as a prothrombotic disease is discussed. Different approaches to reduce bleeding and transfusion requirements in critically ill patients are included based on either preventing or reversing the defects associated with coagulopathies. Blood conservation and the risks of transfusions are reviewed, including an update on transfusion-related acute lung injury. Pharmacologic approaches, an important aspect of blood conservation and are reviewed, including the recent New England Journal of Medicine controversy about aprotinin. Strategies involved in blood conservation in critically ill patients is included with focus on pharmacologic blood-sparing studies. Multiple pharmacologic approaches to reducing and treating bleeding are reviewed. Current and future pharmacologic approaches to attenuating hemostatic system activation, inflammation, and bleeding, and the potential need for allogeneic blood administration are important focuses of this issue.

Mammalian platelets are small (2–4 um), discoid, short-lived fragments derived from megakaryocyte precursors. They play a crucial role not only in the formation of a normal hemostatic plug but they also play a key role in a much wider repertoire of physiological processes such as inflammation, innate immunity, cancer, infection, neurobiology, and tissue repair/regeneration. Over three sections, the individual chapters in this book identify one particular aspect of platelet function, dysfunction, or application. As significant advances continue to develop our thinking of the functional role of platelets in health and disease, this book elevates awareness and enthusiasm in further investigating these functions.