Abstract
The interactions of platelets between themselves or with a damaged endothelium can be diagrammatically divided into three more or less simultaneous phases : contact, stimulation by aggregating substances, formation of microthrombis. On this basis it is possible to examine how an antiplatelet agent may interfere with the rheological factors of blood and alter one or more stages of this theoretical diagram.
Two main groups of drugs can be then considered:
drugs which cause physiological changes (release, synthesis, adhesion...) which differ according to blood flow conditions. drugs which act directly on the membrane and cause modifications on macrorheological parameters (rouleaux formation, viscosity, viscoelasticity) or on microrheological parameters (R.B.C. deformability, membrane fluidity, surface charge...).
On the basis of these two main types of interference, it is possible to study some drugs acting on platelets which are liable to act according to the above patterns.
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