The book has been organized in five sections covering platelet physiology, laboratory methodological aspects, platelet involvement in disease, subdividing the latter into hemostatic and non-hemostatic conditions, platelet pharmacology and finally antiplatelet treatment in the clinic. Within these sections, 72 chapters cover all conventional and unconventional aspects of platelet function, involvement in disease or therapeutics. An emphasis was given to novel or upcoming aspects of platelet physiology, pharmacology and therapeutics, such as gene regulation of platelet function, pharmacogenetics, gene therapy, etc. A large group of leading experts and some of the ‘fathers’ of modern platelet studies have willingly accepted to contribute to the book, making up an outstanding crew of 157 scientists coming from disparate fields and thus giving a real interdisciplinary view of the subject. All chapters have been edited for homogeneity and to help in providing a balanced view of the various subjects. It is, of course, impossible to avoid some degree of overlap and repetition in such a book, but it was the intention of the Editors that, especially on some important or hot topics, the subject would be discussed and presented from different angles. An effort to provide schemes and tables with easy-to-read take-home messages has been made; extensive and updated bibliographic citations are given to provide the interested reader with access to greater detail than can be included in an already large book. Many investigators and clinicians, even if not primarily interested in platelets, cross the platelet field in their daily work: this book should serve them as a comprehensive and authoritative guide to the diagnosis and therapeutics of diseases involving platelets.