Figure 1.

Hemostatic and thrombotic responses. Platelet and fibrin accumulation after vascular injury is intended to limit further blood loss without compounding the original injury by occluding blood flow. In this context, the optimal hemostatic response is one that is large enough to be stable, but not so large that it occludes the vascular lumen, producing downstream ischemia and further tissue damage (from Brass LF, Zhu L, Stalker TJ. Translational therapeutics at the platelet vascular interface: A CME-certified activity. Novel therapeutic targets at the platelet vascular interface. Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol 2008; 28:s43-s50; reprinted with permission).³⁹