Antithrombotic Therapy of Cardiovascular Disease

pp 663-673

Abstract

Antithrombotic therapy indications and the use of new pharmacological agents change continuously. To be updated turns harder every day and it needs a continuous effort to find information that is spread in a great number of publications. This goal of this paper give a picture of the sate of the art in antithrombotic therapy and summarize the bibliographic reviews and the guidelines issued by the American Heart Association, the American College of Cardiology, the American College of Chest Physicians and the Argentine Society of Cardiology. The reviewed items include thromboembolic disease, unstable angina and non-Q wave acute myocardial infarction, Q wave acute myocardial infarction, percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty, coronary bypass surgery, atrial fibrillation, prosthetic cardiac valve replacement, dilated cardiomyopathy and ischemic stroke. Therapeutic strategies, indications, doses and recommended combinations of anticoagulant drugs, thrombolytic drugs and platelet antiaggregant drugs are reviewed for each of the different diagnostic categories.