Use of Nifedipine in the Treatment of Thrombosis

摘要

The report shows that arterial and venous thrombosis are accompanied by an abnormality in Ca2+ handling by the platelets. The abnormality is readily detectable in tests using the fluorescent chelate probe chlorotetracycline. The tests show that the Ca2+ level in the dense tubules of the platelets collected from thrombosis patients are greatly elevated compared to normal controls. The patients also showed a greater extent of Ca2+ release from the dense tubules to the cytoplasm when their platelets were stimulated by collegen. Administration of the Ca2+ channel blocker nifedipine (Procardia(R)) at 10 mg three times per day reduced the values of dense tubule-associated and collagen-releasable Ca2+ to normal values. This treatment is accompanied by improvement of clinical symptoms in all cases. A mechanism is proposed to explain this therapeutic effect.