Skip Navigation

This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow E-Letters: Submit a response to the article
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when E-letters are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Disclaimer
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by McIVER, D. J. L.
Right arrow Articles by PHILP, R. B.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by McIVER, D. J. L.
Right arrow Articles by PHILP, R. B.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

British Journal of Anaesthesia, 1990, Vol. 64, No. 1 77-84
© 1990 The Board of Management and Trustees of the British Journal of Anaesthesia

research-article

ISOLATED HUMAN BLOOD PLATELETS DISCRIMINATE BETWEEN ANAESTHETIC AND NON-ANAESTHETIC GASES AT HIGH PRESSURES{dagger}

D. J. L. McIVER, M.B., CH.B., PH.D., N. D. FIELDS, PH.D. and R. B. PHILP, D.V.M., PH.D.

Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, The University of Western Ontario London, Ontario, Canada N6A 5C1
Departments of Medical Biophysics, Medicine and The John P. Robarts Research Institute

Correspondence to R.B.P.

We have compared the effects of the anaesthetic gases nitrogen and argon on adenosine diphosphate (ADP)-induced human blood platelet aggregation with the effects of the non-anaesthetic gas helium. All three gases showed dose-dependent inhibition of platelet aggregation. For nitrogen and argon there was a linear relationship between gas pressure and inhibition of aggregation over the range 15–68 atmospheres absolute (atm abs), whereas helium had a threshold for inhibition of approximately 34 atm abs. The inhibition by all gases was reversible after slow decompression. At pressures greater than 55 atm abs, nitrogen produced less inhibition than helium, indicating anaesthetic-pressure antagonism. Whereas pressure alone and the anaesthetic gases inhibited aggregation, the platelet shape change elicited by ADP was resistant to both nitrogen and helium, indicating that ADP binding and the early events in platelet activation were relatively unaffected by these conditions.

{dagger}Preliminary accounts of some of these data have been presented at the 3rd International Conference on Molecular and Cellular Mechanisms of Anaesthesia, Calgary, Alberta, 1984 and at the Undersea Medical Society Annual Meeting, Long Beach, California, 1985 [18].


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer:
Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.