Does 15 min of strenuous exercise affect platelet count, adhesion, and aggregation?
Strenuous exercise significantly increases platelet count and aggregation, which must be accounted for when assessing anti-platelet drugs or disease states.
15 min of strenuous exercise caused a highly significant rise in the venous platelet count without altering platelet adhesion to glass. It also produced a significant increase in the rate of the second phase of ADPand adrenaline-induced aggregation, 5-HT-induced aggregation and disaggregation, and collagen-induced aggregation. These changes in platelet number and function following exercise should be taken into account when anti-platelet drugs are assessed in human subjects, and when changes in these parameters are sought in disease states.
Warlow et al. (2009) studied this question.