Prostaglandin I2 during radiolabelling improves recovery, but does not change platelet half-life and platelet uptake over active human lesion sites.

The fact that prostacyclin is able to preserve platelets in-vitro stimulated the question whether platelets being treated in presence of prostacyclin might behave different after reinjection in human. We therefore studied the effect of synthetic PG12 in-vitro, being added immediately after blood sampling. It is demonstrated that the presence of prostacyclin does not change the labelling efficiency and in-vitro viability beside the alterations induced by this compound itself, however, it results in a significantly improved recovery. Furthermore, the platelet half-life in the patients as well as the deposition of the radiolabelled platelets on active human atherosclerotic lesions does not seem to be affected. Thus, the addition of PGI2-improves cellular viability during the preparation without negatively interfering with the in-vitro and in-vivo results later on. Thus, the use of PGI2 can be strongly recommended.