Histologic comparison of intracerebral and intracoronary thrombi

초록

Introduction: Pathophysiologic mechanisms of arterial and venous thrombi formation are considered to be different each other. However, antiplatelet agents are frequently used in the early period after stroke.Purpose: We compared histologic features of intracerebral and intracoronary thrombi.Methods: The thrombi were retrieved from 12 totally occluded coronary arteries in patients with ST-segment elevated myocardial infarction and from 12 middle cerebral arteries in patients with cardioembolic infarction. The thrombi sectioned at a thickness of 5-mm were treated with an anti-PECAM-1 (#3528, Cell Signaling) and glycophorin A (sc-20628, Santa Cruz Biotechnology). The staining for fibrin was performed using PTAH stating kit (ab150683, Abcam). The density of all signals was analyzed in 400 x magnification using NIS-Elements BR 3.2 (Nikon, Japan).Results: Intracerebral thrombi had higher proportion of platelets than intracoronary thrombi (P=0.021) (Figure). However, the composition of intracerebral and intracoronary thrombi did not differ significantly for fibrin (P=0.525) and red blood cell (P=0.443) (Figure).Conclusion: Intracerebral thrombi from patients with cardioembolic infarction showed high density of platelet. This suggests that antiplatelet agents may prevent a thrombus growth in acute phase after stroke.