Table 3.

Haemorheological behaviour during repeated treadmill exercise test in 15 patients with stage II peripheral vascular disease compared with 15 matched placebo controls before and after Clopidogrel treatment

	1st day		2nd day		5th day
	Clopidogrel	Placebo	Clopidogrel	Placebo	Clopidogrel	Placebo
Whole blood viscosity (cP) (shear rate 0.94/s)
Baseline	26.5 (1.0)	26.3 (1.1)	26.6 (1.0)	26.7 (1.6)	26.4 (1.0)	26.4 (1.0)
Peak	29.4 (1.1)*	29.2 (1.3)*	29.5 (1.1)*	29.6 (1.2)*	26.4 (1.1)†‡§	29.5 (1.3)*
Leucoyte activation (%)
Baseline	10.5 (1.8)	11.1 (2.1)	10.7 (1.2)	10.7 (2.2)	11.1 (1.9)	10.9 (2.0)
Peak	15.9 (2.5)*	16.7 (1.9)*	16.1 (2.5)*	16.3 (2.2)*	11.6 (1.9)†‡§	16.5 (2.1)*
Leucoyte filterability rate (P/P)
Baseline	6.1 (0.5)	6.0 (0.4)	6.0 (0.4)	6.1 (0.4)	6.2 (0.4)	6.1 (0.5)
Peak	7.8 (0.5)*	7.9 (0.4)*	7.6 (0.8)*	7.9 (0.3)*	6.2 (0.6)†‡§	7.7 (0.3)*
Soluble P-selectin (ng/ml)
Baseline	366 (12)	366 (19)	362 (11)	371 (14)	359 (16)	359 (16)
Peak	405 (14)*	404 (15)*	356 (25)†§	411 (11)*	353 (23)†‡§	401 (13)*
Platelet count (×109/l)
Baseline	248 (10)	235 (17)	253 (10)	242 (15)	244 (23)	239 (22)
Peak	278 (15)*	270 (14)*	281 (16)*	273 (13)*	271 (20)*	275 (19)*
Total leucocyte count (×109/l)
Baseline	7.8 (0.5)	7.6 (0.4)	8.0 (0.6)	7.8 (0.5)	7.9 (0.5)	7.9 (0.4)
Peak	9.4 (0.8)*	9.2 (0.8)*	9.7 (0.8)*	9.5 (1.0)*	9.7 (1.0)*	9.6 (0.8)*

Whole blood viscosity refers to the ratio of low shear blood viscosity at haematocrit corrected to 45% to plasma viscosity; leucocyte activation refers to leucocytes with pseudopodia and/or cytoplasmic irregularities; leucocyte filterability rate refers to the pressure ratio of cell suspension to buffer after 6 minutes of filtration.

Intragroup analysis: *p<0.01 v baseline; †p<0.01 v 1st day, ‡p<0.01 v 2nd day; intergroup analysis: §p<0.01 v placebo group. Values are expressed as mean (SD).