INTRODUCTION Over the last decade or so, no other subspecialty of medicine has seen such technological innovations, as interventional cardiology. These advances have revolutionized the management of coronary artery disease. From statin drugs to oral platelets inhibitors like clopidogrel and ticlopidine, intravenous platelet glycoprotein IIb/IIIa receptor blockers like Abciximab (Reo-Pro), Eptif...

BACKGROUND The primary mechanism of action of glycoprotein (GP) IIb/IIIa antagonists is inhibition of the final common pathway of platelet aggregation: fibrinogen binding to the GP IIb/IIIa complex. However, it has been reported that induction of fibrinogen binding and platelet aggregation is an intrinsic prothrombotic property of low-dose GP IIb/IIIa antagonists. These apparently paradoxical r...

Prospective, controlled, randomized study enrolled 100 patients with acute anterior STEMI eligible for primary PCI equally divided into 2 groups (group A received bolus intracoronary eptifibatide and group B received it intravenous) followed by 12h continuous IV infusion. Predictors of myocardial salvage in the form of TIMI flow grade III, myocardial blush grade 3, ST segment resolution and lef...

The role of GP IIb/IIIa antagonists has been focused on patients with acute coronary syndromes undergoing PCI. In the ISAR-REACT 2 study abciximab given in patients with NSTEACS undergoing PCI already treated with 600 mg clopidogrel improved 30-day death and reinfarction rate in troponin positive patients. In the large EARLY-ACS trial upstream therapy with eptifibatide in high risk with NSTE-AC...

antiplatelet treatment Offer a single loading dose of 300 mg aspirin as soon as possible and continue indefinitely unless contraindicated by bleeding risk or aspirin hypersensitivity. [Based on a high quality systematic review and cost effectiveness evidence] Offer a loading dose of 300 mg clopidogrel in addition to aspirin to patients with a predicted six month mortality of more than 1.5%, or ...