Death can result from platelets clogging small pulmonary arteries
A California pathologist believes he may have an explanation for some of the thousands of unexplained natural deaths that occur every year.
The explanation: platelet aggregates that clog the small pulmonary arteries.
Hubert C. Pirkle, MD, associate professor of pathology at University of California Irvine College of Medicine, made the suggestion in a report to the recent New Orleans meeting of the American Association of Pathologists and Bacteriologists. He said he has found six such cases—all of them in young adults who had been considered healthy—and that such platelet aggregation due to unknown causes may constitute a major, previously unrecognized cause of death.
Pulmonary artery embolism is a frequent cause of sudden death, Dr. Pirkle acknowledged, but noted that embolism is usually caused by clotting. His six cases were unusual in that the patients had many platelet aggregates—and only in
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