Brain attack. Acute therapeutic intervention. Antithrombotic and antiplatelet-aggregating drugs.

Although antiplatelet and anticoagulant drugs are of proven usefulness in the prevention of stroke among high-risk persons, their value in improving outcome after acute ischemic stroke has not been established. Potentially effective drugs include heparin, low molecular weight heparins and heparinoids, aspirin, and the new glycoprotein IIb/IIIa platelet receptor antagonists. Clinical trials are testing these drugs, and the role of emergent administration of anticoagulant or antiplatelet drugs in the acute treatment of persons with ischemic stroke should be clarified in the near future.