Cigarette Smoking and the in Vitro Thrombosis of Human Blood

In 1958, Chandler1described a simple method for the production of a true platelet-head thrombus in vitro. Recalcified whole blood is placed in a rotating plastic loop, and the interval between the initiation of rotation and the end point is called the thrombus formation time. The apparatus has been used by other investigators2,3who verified that the procedure produces a thrombus rather than a clot, a distinction which is important.4A longitudinal section of a thrombus formed in the Chandler loop illustrating the clumping of platelets at the head is shown in the Figure. During the past year, in the course of studying the effect of smoking on serum lipids, we have used the Chandler apparatus to measure thrombus formation before and after smoking. Methods and Procedure The subjects, all private patients and habitual smokers, were randomly selected. They came to the office in the morning without having