Increased basal platelet activity, plasma adiponectin levels, and diabetes mellitus are associated with poor platelet responsiveness to in vitro effect of aspirin

PFA-100 tests revealed that 40 subjects (24%) were poor responders (PR) and 128 (76%) were good responders (GR). Poor responsiveness was significantly associated with (1) higher basal platelet activities in PFA-100, as well as in whole blood aggregation and aggregometer;(2) increased level of adiponectin (8.8 ± 4.1 μg/mL [PR] vs 7.3 ± 2.9 μg/mL [GR], p = 0.010);and (3) the presence of diabetes mellitus (17.5% [PR] vs 4.7% [GR], p = 0.009). Importantly, whereas 24% of the subjects showed insufficient inhibition in PFA-100 when incubated with 10 μM aspirin, almost all subjects showed maximum inhibition with 30 μM aspirin. These observations suggest that higher doses of aspirin might overcome aspirin resistance.