13.02 Anti-Thrombotic Drugs

This section concerns the anti-thrombotic drugs, and there are 3 groups these, the anti-platelet agents, which are used to prevent platelet-platelet aggregation at the start of thrombus formation. The second group are the anti-coagulants, to prevent coagulation, which often occurs around excessive platelet-platelet aggregation. The third group are the fibrinolytics (also known as thrombolytics), which are used after clots have formed to cause heart attack or stroke, to breakdown the clots and restore normal blood flow.