Platelet reactivity in overweight and obese patients undergoing cardiac surgery

Body mass index (BMI) and specifically overweight and obesity have been associated with an increased platelet reactivity in different series of patients. This information is derived by different laboratory platelet function tests (PFTs) like mean platelet volume (MPV), platelet microparticles, thromboxane B2 metabolites, and others. Point-of-care PFT, which are often used in cardiac surgery, are rarely addressed. The present study aims to verify platelet reactivity using multiple-electrode aggregometry (MEA) as a function of BMI in cardiac surgery patients. One-hundred ninety-eight cardiac surgery patients free from the effects of drugs acting on the P2Y12 receptor and undergoing cardiac surgery received MEA-PFT immediately before surgery. Platelet reactivity was compared between normal weight and overweight–obese subjects. There were 99 underweight/normal (BMI < 25), 60 overweight (BMI ≥ 25) and 39 obese (BMI ≥ 30) patients. Overweight–obese patients did not show higher platelet counts nor a clear platelet hyper-reactivity, when tested with MPV and MEA ADP test. At TRAPtest, the overweight/obese patients had a significantly (P = 0.011) higher platelet reactivity (median 118, interquartile range 106–136) than controls (median 112, interquartile range 101–123) and a higher rate of platelet hyper-reactivity (odds ratio 2.19, 95% confidence interval 1.15–4.16, P = 0.016) in a multivariable model. A minor association was found between the BMI and platelet reactivity at TRAPtest, with a higher degree of activity for increasing BMI. The BMI determines an increased thrombin-dependent platelet reactivity in cardiac surgery patients. Thrombin is extensively formed during cardiac surgery, and this may explain the lower postoperative bleeding observed in obese patients in previous studies.