Antiplatelet therapy for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases is common in the ageing population. Whether this therapy exacerbates brain injury after head trauma is an important, but unsettled, topic. In this issue of Critical Care, Fabbri and colleagues address the question of whether pre-injury intake of antiplatelet medication increases the risk profile of patients with posttraumatic int...

Hyporesponsiveness, or resistance, to antiplatelet therapy may be a major contributor to poorer outcomes among cardiac patients and may be attributed to an array of mechanisms--both modifiable and unmodifiable. Recent evidence has uncovered clinical, cellular, and genetic factors associated with hyporesponsiveness. Patients with severe acute coronary syndromes (ACS), type 2 diabetes, and increa...

Platelet activation has been implicated in microvascular thrombosis and organ failure in critically ill patients. In the first part the present paper summarises important data on the role of platelets in systemic inflammation and sepsis as well as on the beneficial effects of antiplatelet drugs in animal models of sepsis. In the second part the data of retrospective and prospective observationa...

Aspirin and clopidogrel are the most commonly used antiplatelet agents in patients with coronary artery disease. The existence of resistance to these agents has been a controversial issue and new drugs are being developed to overcome this problem. Laboratory tests, which can identify resistance and correlate this with clinical outcome, are being studied in order to identify patients at risk of ...

The working party statements aim to provide evidence and guidelines to practising doctors on the use of antiplatelet therapy and proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) in patients with cardiovascular risk as well as those at risk of gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding. Balancing the GI and cardiovascular risk and benefits of antiplatelet therapy and PPIs may sometimes pose a significant challenge to doctors....

Dual antiplatelet therapy with aspirin and a thienopyridine has been shown to reduce cardiac events after coronary stenting. However, many patients and healthcare providers prematurely discontinue dual antiplatelet therapy, which greatly increases the risk of stent thrombosis, myocardial infarction, and death. This advisory stresses the importance of 12 months of dual antiplatelet therapy after...

Background Hemostatic disorder and massive bleeding are common complications after cardiac surgery procedures, particularly in procedures requiring prolonged cardiopulmonary bypass. Conventional laboratory coagulation tests failed to predict hemostatic disorder and consequent proclivity to excessive bleeding. On the other hand there is evergrowing proportion of patients who need antiplatelet th...

The gamma heavy-chain subclass of bound antiplatelet antibody was examined in six patients with autoimmune thrombocytopenic purpura (ATP) by a solid-phase radioimmunoassay. Monospecific antisera for ‘yGl , yG2, ‘yG3. and ‘yG4 subclasses were employed in a “sandwich” technique, utilizing the binding of 125l-staphylococcal protein A. We have previously reported that serum antiplatelet antibody wa...

The clinical pharmacology of antiplatelet drugs has been reviewed previously by the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Task force and by the 8th American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP) Evidence-Based Clinical Practice Guidelines. Moreover, information on the efficacy and safety of antiplatelet drugs in the treatment and prevention of atherothrombosis is provided by collaborative meta-anal...

Acute coronary syndrome (ACS) is still a serious condition associated with decreased quality of life, increased healthcare expenditures, and premature death. The prevalence of ACS is expected to increase with aging of the population and with the epidemics of obesity and diabetes. The shortand long-term mortality after an ACS has been dramatically reduced by the development of revascularization ...