Enhanced platelet reactivity in pediatric depression: An observational study

Depression is associated with poor prognosis for Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) including mortality. Among multiple mechanisms linking depression and CVD, changes in platelet reactivity are known to be one of the major confounders of such adverse association. However, there are very limited data in children. Thus, we evaluated some conventional hemostatic indices including whole blood platelet aggregation in patients with documented pediatric depression and compared these data with those obtained from healthy children. The pediatric patients fulfilled criteria for major depression with a minimum score of 19 on the 21-item Beck Depression Inventory Scale. Plasma fibrinogen, D-dimer, platelet count, mean platelet volume, and platelet aggregation induced by Adenosine Diphosphate (ADP) and collagen were measured in 67 pediatric patients with depression and matched by age and sex with 78 healthy controls