Using a Filtration Technique to Isolate Platelet Free Plasma for Assaying Pyrophosphate

Background Vascular calcification (VC) is a strong prognostic marker of mortality from cardiovascular disease. Extracellular inorganic pyrophosphate (PPi) is a critical inhibitor of vascular calcification and it has been reported that hemodialysis patients have reduced plasma PPi levels, suggesting that altered PPi metabolism could contribute to VC in hemodialysis patients. Platelets are rich in PPi and release of PPi from platelets during storage or processing of plasma can lead to falsely elevated plasma PPi levels. To prepare plasma samples that are suitable for measuring PPi levels, ultracentrifugation has been used to remove platelets. Consequently, plasma PPi measurements have been limited to research laboratories since the majority of clinical laboratories do not have access to an ultracentrifuge. The purpose of the present study was to test the validity of an improved method of preparing platelet free plasma that uses filtration with a 300,000 Dalton molecular weight cut-off filter to exclude platelets, while minimizing their release of PPi.