Effect of vitamin C on platelet adhesiveness and platelet aggregation in coronary artery disease patients.

The effect of oral administration of vitamin C on platelet adhesive index (PAI), platelet aggregate ratio (PAg R) and serum ascorbic acid levels was studied. Feeding 75 g of butter to healthy males (group I, n = 10 cases), enhanced the tendency of platelet adhesiveness (PAd) and platelet aggregation (PAg) to a significant level at the end of 4 h. This was distinctly prevented when 1 g of vitamin C was added to the fatty meal. In coronary artery disease (CAD) patients (group II, n = 20 cases) 10 days of vitamin C administration at 1 g every 8 hours decreased the PAd (p less than 0.001) and PAg (p less than 0.05) significantly. There was also a significant (p less than 0.001) rise in the vitamin C levels. The study brings out a property of vitamin C which may be of considerable importance in prevention of chronic thromboatherosclerotic disease of the arteries.