Indium-III Labelled Platelet Imaging of Prosthetic Materials in Humans

Abstract

Prosthetic materials are increasingly used in medicine. Currently, prosthetic materials are used in the construction of vascular catheters, arterial and venous substitutes, membrane oxygenators, dialysis machines, heart valves, ventricular assist devices and totally artificial hearts. The major complications of prosthetic materials are mechanical failure, infection, thrombotic occlusion due to thrombus formation on the prosthetic surface, and systemic embolization due to the breaking off of thrombotic deposits. Due to improved materials and fabrication techniques, mechanical failure is now extremely rare. The most common complications of prosthetic materials currently encountered are thromboemblic events. There is now abundant evidence that platelet mechanisms play a predominant role in the thrombotic and embolic events caused by intravascular prosthetic materials. All currently used prosthetic materials are thrombogenic when placed in humans.