Reticulated platelets: analytical aspects and clinical utility

Abstract

Reticulated platelets are immature platelets circulating in blood; they reflect the activity of megakaryopoiesis in the bone marrow. Therefore, they can be used as a non-invasive test in patients with thrombocytopenia in various clinical conditions. The preferred method of analysis is by flow cytometry. However, there is an evident lack of analytical standardization, making it difficult to compare results obtained in different laboratories. Currently, two types of hematology analyzers are on the market offering fully automated measurement of reticulated or immature platelets: the high end analyzers manufactured by Sysmex (XE-and XN-series) and Abbott (CELL-DYN Sapphire). Although the methods are essentially different and cannot be used interchangeably, both have been proven to have clinical utility. Reticulated or immature platelet assays are useful for the differential diagnosis of thrombocytopenia and for monitoring bone marrow recovery after chemotherapy or stem cell transplantation. These assays may aid clinicians in platelet transfusion decisions when recovery from thrombocytopenia is imminent. In addition, preliminary findings indicate that there is a rationale for reticulated or immature platelets for risk stratification in acute coronary syndromes and for monitoring the effect of treatment with antiplatelet drugs in patients with coronary artery diseases. The aim of this paper is to present the present technology available for measuring reticulated platelets as well as an overview of the current status of clinical application. This overview also indicates that more research is needed before reticulated or immature platelet assays can be applied in other clinical conditions than thrombocytopenia and after transplantation.

Reticulated Platelets in Egyptian Patients with Chronic Hepatitis C Infection

“…Many studies showed that RP measurement is a non-invasive test that represents a surrogate marker for megakaryocytic activity [13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21] . Therefore, the current study aimed to evaluate the RP% in patients with chronic hepatitis C as an index of platelet production and to evaluate the relationship between the RP% and the platelet count in those patients.…”

“…The RP contain residual messenger RNA (mRNA), they are functionally active and are equivalent to the reticulocytes of erythropoiesis. The RP are non-invasive indicator of recent megakaryopoiesis in the bone marrow, therefore, may be used to determine whether thrombocytopenia is due to decreased production or peripheral destruction of platelets [14] .…”

“…Flow cytometric analysis had been considered the preferred method of measuring RP [14,15] . Thiazole orange (TO), a nucleic acid dye, [16][17][18] remains a good choice for RP staining [15] .…”

Platelet Distribution Width and Mean Platelet Volume Are Not Correlated with the Disease Activity Indices of Ankylosing Spondylitis

“…They can be increased in idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura and myeloproliferative disorder, and decreased in aplastic anaemia [9,10]. In addition, there were reports that PDW Figure 1.…”

Avaliação da relação entre produção plaquetária e expressão de proteínas do sistema apoptótico plaquetário em diferentes graus de plaquetopenia da Trombocitopenia Imune (PTI)

“…Alguns autores descrevem o teste, como avaliação da cinética plaquetária. (Abe et al, 2005;Jiménez et al, 2006;Kajihara et al, 2007;Kile, 2009;Hoffmann, 2014 Horstman, 2002;Gernsheimer, 2008;Tantawy et al, 2010).…”