Continuous monitoring of platelet morphology during small-scale in vitro storage.

A commercially available aggregometer was mechanically and electronically modified to enable automatic repeated measurements of platelet morphology for platelet suspensions undergoing prolonged storage within a sealed perspex cuvette, at any temperature. The modifications are described in sufficient detail to enable others to readily produce the same or similar apparatus. Representative experiments with such apparatus are described, and indicate its potential usefulness in defining the rate of change of platelet morphology occurring during storage at any given temperature, e.g. progressive alteration of shear-induced light transmission change values.