BACKGROUND Patients with heparin-induced thrombocytopenia type II require an alternative to standard heparin anticoagulation. However, in patients with renal impairment, anticoagulation during cardiopulmonary bypass with agents such as danaparoid sodium or r-hirudin are associated with hemorrhage. Anticoagulation with unfractionated heparins combined with prostacyclin, a potent platelet aggrega...

Over the past 8 years large-scale, placebo-controlled trials have established the efficacy of intravenous platelet glycoprotein (GP) IIb/IIIa inhibitors at reducing the 30-day composite of death, myocardial infarction, and urgent target vessel revascularization associated with percutaneous coronary angioplasty, atherectomy, and stent placement. Using abciximab, tirofiban, or eptifibatide, each ...

A 28 year old male, known case of nephrotic syndrome since 12 years, hypertensive presented with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and accelerated hypertension. Coronary angiography revealed 100% thrombotic occlusion of mid left anterior descending artery, treated with thrombus aspiration and intracoronary tirofiban and nitroglycerine. He was stabilized within 24 hours. The pathogenesis of AMI ...

The conventional description of platelet interactions with collagen-coated surfaces in vitro, based on serial static measurements, is that platelets first adhere and spread to form a monolayer and then recruit additional layers of platelets. To obtain dynamic information, we studied gravity-driven platelet deposition in vitro on purified type 1 collagen by video phase-contrast microscopy at 22 ...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to evaluate preliminarily the efficacy and safety of intravenous tirofiban combined with intra-arterial pharmacologic and mechanical thrombolysis in patients with stroke. METHODS Twenty-one consecutive patients with an acute ischemic stroke due to major cerebral arteries occlusion and a National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale [NIHSS] sco...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Intraprocedural thrombus formation during endovascular treatment of intracranial aneurysms is often treated with glycoprotein IIb/IIIa inhibitors and, in some instances, fibrinolytic therapy. We performed a meta-analysis evaluating the safety and efficacy of GP IIb/IIIa inhibitors compared with fibrinolysis. We also evaluated the safety and efficacy of abciximab, an irrev...

It has been reported that up to 12% of patients underwent non-cardiac surgery or invasive procedures within the first year after the coronary stent implantation. Premature discontinuation of antiplatelet therapy is associated with a significant increase in mortality and major adverse cardiac events, in particular, stent thrombosis. Thus, postponement of elective surgery is advocated during the ...

AIMS Our study aimed to compare two reperfusion strategies in patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) admitted initially to a community hospital without catheterization facilities. METHODS AND RESULTS Four hundred and one patients with STEMI admitted to community hospital (13 hospitals, radius 20-150 km from cath-lab) were randomized to on-site thrombolysis or to transport wi...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Ischaemic stroke is a serious disease with limited therapy options. Glycoprotein (GP)Ib binding to von Willebrand factor (vWF) exposed at vascular injury initiates platelet adhesion and contributes to platelet aggregation. GPIb has been suggested as an effective target for antithrombotic therapy in stroke. Anfibatide is a GPIb antagonist derived from snake venom and we in...

BACKGROUND Saphenous vein graft (SVG) percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) carries a high risk of ischemic complications. However, there are scant recent data to identify which SVG lesions carry particularly high risk in recent years. We studied demographic and angiographic factors associated with ischemic complications after SVG PCI without distal protection in the TARGET (do tirofiban and...