A new heart medication may be able to help the millions of people with a condition known as unstable angina. Scientists studied almost 11-thousand people who had chest pain within the previous 24 hours. Patients who were given integrilin also received standard therapy of aspirin or heparin.
Unstable angina is caused by the partial blockage of the blood supply to the heart muscle.
When vessels supplying the heart muscle with blood are narrowed by plaque and clumps of platelets, the heart muscle can't get enough oxygen and can die. Integrilin acts on the platelets themselves, binding to receptors to prevent further clumping together. It was recently approved for marketing by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.