Thrombolytic therapy with streptokinase using a standard dosage.

The term " thrombolytic therapy " refers to the attempted removal of preformed intravascular fibrin occlusions using fibrinolytic agents. Several substances have been described as inducing a fibrinolytic state in the peripheral blood ; however, for only a few of these (namely, the plasminogen activators streptokinase and urokinase) was it proved beyond reasonable doubt that administration resulted in an increase in fibrinolytic activity to the point of dissolving intravascular thrombi. After critical clinical evaluation the overall results with streptokinase-plasmin mixtures were rather disappointing and it was still unclear which of the two agents was responsible for the action. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that where a standard dosage scheme which has been proved to induce thrombolysis can be used for streptokinase administration, cumbersome laboratory controls become non-essential, thus making clinical trials accessible to a larger group of investigators.