EDUCATION IN HEART

Coronary disease

Antiplatelet treatment for coronary heart disease

N Clappers, M A Brouwer, F W A Verheugt

Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Center, Heartcenter, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Professor Freek W A Verheugt
Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Center, Heartcenter, 670 Cardiology, PO Box 9101, Nijmegen, The Netherlands 6500 HB; f.verheugt@cardio.umcn.nl

Keywords: antiplatelet treatment; aspirin; coronary heart disease; glycoprotein IIa/IIIb inhibitors; thienopyridines

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Platelets play an essential role in the pathogenesis of acute coronary syndromes (ACS).¹ Therefore an important part of the treatment of ACS, and of primary and secondary preventive measures in coronary heart disease, consists of antiplatelet treatment. Over the years antiplatelet treatment has evolved, and currently several types of antiplatelet drugs are available, each with their specific pharmacological target and with their specific clinical indications. Although antiplatelet treatment is beneficial for vascular patients as a group, some individual patients appear to derive less benefit. In this context the term antiplatelet-drug resistance has been introduced. To date, however, no definite cause, definition, or treatment has been determined for this phenomenon. These issues will be discussed in this article.

PLATELET ACTIVATION

In the case of vascular endothelial damage, the first haemostatic reaction is vasoconstriction. Thereafter, the platelets come into action and the coagulation system is activated. Through disruption of the endothelial layer . . . [Full text of this article]

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

Relevant Articles

WEB TOP 10
Heart 2007 93: 655. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

WEB TOP 10
Heart 2007 93: 418. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Fisher, M. (2009). Does the Combination of Warfarin and Aspirin Have a Place in Secondary Stroke Prevention?: No. Stroke 40: 1944-1945 [Full Text]  
• Hamm, C. W., Möllmann, H., Bassand, J.-P., van de Werf, F. (2009). CHAPTER 16 Acute Coronary Syndromes. ESC Textbook of Cardiovascular Medicine 2: med-9780199566990-chapter-med-9780199566990-chapter [Abstract] [Full Text]