[Platelet antiaggregants and coronary pathology].

Platelet inhibitors have widely been studied in various clinical situations resulting from atherosclerosis of the coronary arteries. At present, aspirin is virtually the only drug that has proved to be effective in all cases where the risk of coronary thrombosis was very high. Administered in daily doses of 160 to 1,500 mg, acetylsalicylic acid reduces the frequency of coronary thrombosis and its consequence, myocardial infarction, in the following clinical situations: year following myocardial infarction, acute phase of myocardial infarction, unstable angina, year following aorto-coronary bypass, days following dilatation of the coronary arteries. Acetylsalicylic acid has been compared with heparin and anti-vitamin K agents in four trial: whatever the model studied, no difference was found in the effectiveness of the two treatments tested. Aspirin ha recently been reported as preventing myocardial infarction in healthy subjects. The practical value of this finding is questionable. The various effects of aspirin have been ascribed to the fact that it interrupts a cascade of events ranging from rupture of atherosclerosis plaques to arterial thrombosis.