SummaryADP, AMP, or ATP was injected rapidly intravenously in rats. ADP injection resulted in the f olio wing transient changes: a drop in platelet count, a rise in central venous pressure, a fall in carotid arterial PO2, bradycardia, arrhythmia, flutter-fibrillation, and arterial hypotension. AMP and ATP produced some of these same effects; but except for hypotension, their frequency and severity Avere much less than those following ADP.Prior intravenous administration of acetylsalicylic acid or pyridinolcarbamate, two inhibitors of the second wave of ADP-induced platelet aggregation in vitro, significantly reduced the frequency and severity of all the above ADP-induced changes except hypotension. These observations suggest that many of the changes (except hypotension) observed to follow ADP injection are produced by platelet aggregates which lodge transiently in various microcirculatory beds then rapidly disaggregate and recirculate.
