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Trapped Platelets Activated in Ischemia Initiate Ventricular Fibrillation

This paper demonstrates that platelets release a secretome, which induces ventricular fibrillation, if trapped in a small myocardial infarct. This event may underlie the poorly understood phenomenon of “sudden cardiac death”, explaining why current therapies that inhibit platelet aggregation but not activation (aspirin, avb3 antagonists) don’t influence its prevalence. Key to this discovery is our development of a cannula for infusion of platelets into an isolated heart upon which we can inflict a small myocardial infarction. This model will allow further study of this phenomenon, providing a test bed for screening novel anti-platelet activation drugs with major potential clinical impact.