Efficacy and safety of platelet inhibitors.

Ischemic heart disease is the second leading cause of death in the world. The proportion of deaths resulting from this condition has decreased in the last two decades, mainly as a result of improved primary and secondary prevention of cardiovascular events, as well as the development of patient awareness and medical and pharmacological management. The purpose of the present review is to analyze pathophysiological events leading to platelet involvement in cardiovascular thrombosis, as well as the role of pharmacogenetics in modulating the risk of cardiovascular disorders. The present work was performed using a PubMed search with combinations of key words relevant to the subject in both English and French. In addition to the pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic characteristics of platelet inhibitors, this work reviews the efficacy and adverse events observed during the clinical trials with these drugs. This review further summarizes possible therapeutic drug monitoring strategies for antiplatelet drugs. The novelty of this work is the description of the lymphocyte toxicity assay as a specific method of diagnosing and predicting possible idiosyncratic adverse events attributable to antiplatelet medication.