Phospholipid determination in platelets, plasma and red cells of patients with chronic myeloproliferative disorders.

Red cell phospholipids (PLs) were assessed in 11 patients with essential thrombocythemia and 5 patients with polycythemia vera. Platelet and plasma PLs were also determined in 10 of these patients, and the results were compared with studies performed in 16 healthy volunteers. The amount of platelet PLs in patients was similar to controls (556 +/- 90 mmol/10(9) cells, versus 481 +/- 91 mmol/10(9) cells), as was the percentage of the main specimens of these compounds, including phosphatidylserine (11.1 +/- 0.8%), which is relevant for platelet procoagulant activity. We did not find differences between red cell PLs of patients (300 +/- 60 nmol/10(9) cells), versus controls (289 +/- 71 nmol/10(9) cells), and the sphingomyelin/phosphatidylcholine ratio in these cells was the same in both groups (0.75 +/- 0.1). Finally, we did not detect any alteration in the amount of plasma PLs specimens.