Haemostasis and thrombosis: new developments in treatment strategies.

The pivotal studies from 2002 in the field of clinical haemostasis and thrombosis were all about the evaluation of existing or novel antiplatelet and anticoagulant strategies. Most of the new agents are specifically targeted to haemostatic pathways, which have recently been shown to be of importance in vivo and usually have a higher efficacy in comparison with currently available treatment strategies. In some cases this also results in a (relatively modest) increase in the risk of bleeding. The clinical use of the new compounds is often much more convenient than that of the currently available antithrombotic modalities.