Increased platelet reactivity has been associated with a greater risk of cardiovascular events. Despite this consistent association, individualized anti-platelet therapy, guided by platelet function testing has not yet shown to reduce the risk of cardiovascular events and intra-individual variability of the current indirect platelet function tests has been identified as the potential contributor to this lack of efficacy.
FcγRIIa is expressed on the surface of platelets and amplifies the activation of platelets. Platelet expression of FcγRIIa also provides a tangible link between systemic inflammation and increased platelet reactivity. In contrast to the current indirect platelet reactivity tests, expression of FcγRIIa can be directly quantifiably measured and is not directly influenced by anti-platelet therapy.
Initial clinical testing has shown that post an initial myocardial infraction patients with platelet expression of FcγRIIa > 11,000/platelet had an increased incidence of cardiovascular events odds ratio of 3.2 suggesting that it is a novel marker of increased platelet reactivity capable of identifying increased risk of cardiovascular events.
Accepted: FcγRIIa: A Novel Marker of Cardiovascular Risk Journal of the American College of Cardiology