[Therapeutic prospects and prostaglandins in vascular pathology]

The discovery of thromboxanes and prostacycline has opened up a new therapeutic approach to vascular and thrombotic diseases. Aspirin is no longer considered to be an antiaggregant drug, but an inhibitor of cyclooxygenase which, depending on the dose, may have an effect on platelets and the vessel. Thromboxane synthetase inhibitors and thromboxane receptor blockers represent a new mode of inhibition of platelet activation. Therapeutic trials of the vasodilator and antiaggregant prostacycline have been carried out in obliterative arterial disease and Raynaud' syndrome with a certain degree of success. The production of a stable analogue of prostacycline and the manipulation of the leukotrienes are the therapeutic hopes for the future.