Noting the paucity ofinformation on the effect of estrogen on platelet membrane fatty acid composition, Ranganath et al. (A-48) conducted a study to examine the possibility that changes may be present in postmenopausal women and that these may be reversible with estrogen treatment. The 31 women recruited for the study had not menstruated for at least 3 months or had symptoms of the menopause. No woman was on any form of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) at the time she was recruited. The following are the platelet membrane linoleic acid values before and after a period of HRT:

Subject Before After Subject Before After Subject Before After 1 6.06 5.34 12 7.65 5.55 23 5.04 4.74 2 6.68 6.11 13 4.57 4.25 24 7.89 7.48 3 5.22 5.79 14 5.97 5.66 25 7.98 6.24 4 5.79 5.97 15 6.07 5.66 26 6.35 5.66 5 6.26 5.93 16 6.32 5.97 27 4.85 4.26 6 6.41 6.73 17 6.12 6.52 28 6.94 5.15 7 4.23 4.39 18 6.05 5.70 29 6.54 5.30 8 4.61 4.20 19 6.31 3.58 30 4.83 5.58 9 6.79 5.97 20 4.44 4.52 31 4.71 4.10 10 6.16 6.00 21 5.51 4.93 11 6.41 5.35 22 8.48 8.80 Source: Data provided courtesy of Dr. L. Ranganath.