IT HAS been shown in experimental animals that the human fibrinolytic enzyme (plasminogen activated with streptokinase) will dissolve fresh intravascular thrombi." Fibrinolytic agents are also undergoing an extensive clinical trial and the preliminary reports which have appeared*" have suggested that this type of therapy will be of value in the management of thrombo-embolic disorders. Variation...

A quantitative method based on the disappearance of I laljeled fibrin h;is been used to study the in vivo effect of fibrinolytic agents. Various preparations of human and bovine plasmin were found to lyse clots effectively. The minimal effective dose of human plasmin prepared by the method of Kline was 15 Loomis units/Kg. Plasmin preparations given intravenously produced hypotension and leukope...

THE significance of the fibrinogen content of the blood in the clotting mechanism has received little consideration except for the effects of obvious hypofibrinogenemia in hemorrhagic states. Hyperfibrinogenemia occurs in many conditions that are associated with thrombotic complications and may be a factor in their formation. The purpose of the present study has been to compare the response of ...

MacFarlane and Biggs (5) recently reviewed the literature dealingwith the plasminogen-plasmin, an active proteolytic enzyme and an antiprotease which are present in plasmas in health and dis ease. Satisfactory quantitative data for the plas minogen-plasmin relationship and for the spon taneously active proteolytic enzyme in disease are limited. Although the antiprotease has been studied rather ...

THE magnlitude of the literature dealing with deep thrombophlebitis of the lower extremities and its complications reflects not onily the interest that this disorder commands among physicians but also the extensive controversy that it has generated. Controversy surrounds even such fundamental problems as the pathogenesis of venous thromboembolism, the natural course of the process, and the adeq...

IN THE COURSE of assaying the potency of a variety of fibrinolytic enzyme preparations in dogs and monkeys with isotopelabeled fibrin clots, we observed that the fibrinolytie activity disappeared rapidly from the systemic circulation. Dissolution of blood clots was noted to occur long after the disappearance of measurable circulating fibrinolytic activity. These experimental observations were c...

The fibrinolytic activity of hemolytic streptococci designates the capacity of cultures of the organisms to liquefy rapidly human fibrin clot (1). The lyric action is referable to the presence in the culture of an extracellular substance, characteristically elaborated by those strains of hemolytic streptococci which are derived from patients suffering with acute streptococcus infections. Invest...

Plasmin, the proteolytic enzyme of mammalian plasma, occurs in its native state as an inactive proenzyme termed plasminogen (1). The activation of plasminogen can be carried out by physical agents or by specific bacterial kinases (e.g. streptokinase) (l-3). Other terms which have been used synonymously with plasmin are serum tryptase (4) and fibrinolysin (5). Attempts to find synthetic substrat...

Disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) is a syndrome that can be initiated by a myriad of medical, surgical, and obstetric disorders. Also known as consumptive coagulopathy, DIC is a common contributor to maternal morbidity and mortality and is associated with up to 25% of maternal deaths. The etiopathogenesis of DIC is complex and currently thought to be initiated by tissue factor or thr...