Progress in pharmacotherapy of thrombosis

Excessive coagulation and impaired fibrinolysis lead to many hemostatic disorders, which enhance the risk of development of life-threatening cardiovascular diseases such as myocardial infarction, stroke, deep venous thrombosis and pulmonary embolism, belonging to the most important factors influencing morbidity and mortality in civilized societies. The adverse events induced by currently used drugs, the need for regular monitoring of coagulation parameters, inconvenient, in some cases, route of administration stimulate further search for novel, effective and safe methods of therapies of these disorders. In this paper, we describe those new agents which are now under experimental and clinical study, such us prostanoids, nitroaspirin, GP IIb/IIIa receptor antagonists, thienopyridine derivatives, collagen-GPVI and von Willebrand factor-GPIb-IX contact blockers, direct thrombin inhibitors, inhibitors of thrombin-platelet interactions, factor VII inhibitors and tissue factor-factor VII contact blockers. Based on the available literature, we discuss the possible role of these agents in the future prevention and treatment of thromboembolic diseases.