[New thrombocyte aggregation inhibitor in therapy of unstable angina].

Unstable angina is a critical phase of coronary heart disease with a risk for myocardial infarction or death of up to 20% within 30 days. Glycoprotein IIb/IIIa antagonists are a new class of potent antiplatelet drugs. In several large randomized trials, it has been well established that the antibody abciximab, and the low molecular synthetic compounds tirofiban and eptifibatide, reduce the cardiac event rate by 10 to 70% in patients with and without percutaneous interventions. This effect was found to be predominately present in patients with elevated troponins. Accordingly, glycoprotein IIb/IIIa antagonists represent a major achievement for the treatment regimen of patients with unstable angina.