Platelet-Inhibiting Drugs in the Prevention of Clinical Thrombotic Disease

Abstract

(Second of Three Parts)Coronary Heart DiseaseIn coronary heart disease, there is evidence that platelets may be involved, both by their incorporation into occlusive thrombi and by embolization of aggregates into the microcirculation.3–5,^{38 , 39} The conduct of clinical trials in coronary heart disease presents major difficulties, the most important of which relates to the large number of patients required to perform the study in a reasonable time, since the incidence of the end points, myocardial infarction and death, is low. If a primary prevention study were performed on randomly selected middle-aged subjects without evidence of overt coronary-artery disease, and myocardial . . .