[The importance of the plasmatic blood clotting system in the early stages of arterial thrombogenesis (author's transl)].

Apart from today's concept of arterial thrombogenesis, a mechanism of the early events in arterial thrombus formation is proposed, which also includes recent insight into the nature of the blood vessel wall and its interaction with the plasmatic blood clotting system. Observations have accumulated indicating that at the site of lesions of the interior vessel lining thromboplastic activity does appear to induce local thrombin formation. Under conditions of high arterial blood flow thrombin interacts with platelets culminating in the formation of a white thrombus. Based on these considerations, which in part may still be speculative, the possibility may evolve to develop a new highly specific prophylaxis and therapy of arterial thrombosis.