[New antiplatelet agents]

Aspirin has set the gold standard for platelet inhibition in prophylaxis and treatment of cardiovascular diseases. Invasive techniques and novel platelet-inhibitors have fundamentally changed therapeutic approaches to antithrombotic treatment and further diversification is to be expected in the future. Three trends are essentially obvious: 1) the combination of established inhibitors such as aspirin with ticlopidine or clopidogrel, 2) the use of new IIb/IIa antagonists in various molecular forms, pharmacologies and doses and 3) the combination of established platelet-inhibitors with theses novel IIIb/IIIa antagonists.