Bacterial capacity of blood platelets in patients suffering from pneumonia.

The percent of bacteria engulfed by blood platelets, surviving in them and killed was determined in these cells taken from 22 patients with pneumonia before the treatment and from 14 patients after the treatment. The mean percent of bacteria phagocytosed by platelets collected before the treatment was 6.28 and by those after the treatment 5.01, being considerably higher than in the control group (3.42). The mean percent of bacteria surviving in platelets taken before the treatment equalled 3.10 and after the treatment 2.36 being also higher than in the control group (1.32). The mean percent of bacteria killed by platelets taken before the treatment was 3.18 and by those taken after the treatment 2.65, being also higher than in the control group. These results seem to indicate that in cases of pneumonia the blood platelets are involved into the antibacterial activity.