Monitoring of hemostasis parameters during coronary thrombolysis with recombinant tissue-type plasminogen activator.

The monitoring of changes in the blood coagulation and fibrinolytic systems during thrombolytic therapy with recombinant tissue-type plasminogen activator (rt-PA) may be complicated by artifacts due to in vitro activation after blood collection and to interference of other agents (e.g., heparin) in the assays. In 106 patients with early acute myocardial infarction, infused with 150 mg of rt-PA (G11044) intravenously over 5 to 8 hours, blood samples were collected into liquid citrate supplemented with the plasmin inhibitor aprotinin (200 KIU/ml plasma) or on a lyophilized mixture of acidified citrate and the synthetic t-PA inhibitor D-Phe-Pro-Arg-CH2Cl (PPACK). A good correlation between precipitable (sulphite) and functional (clotting rate) fibrinogen levels was observed in plasma collected on citrate before therapy (r = 0.76) and in samples collected after 3 hours on either aprotinin (r = 0.87) or PPACK (r = 0.82). Precipitable fibrinogen levels were approximately 10% higher than functional level, in baseline samples collected on citrate alone and approximately 20% higher in 3 hour samples collected on either PPACK or aprotinin. Fibrinogen levels measured with both assays correlated well, but were somewhat higher in samples collected on PPACK than on aprotinin. rt-PA antigen levels assayed in plasma collected in either inhibitor correlated well (r = 0.90) but were 10-20% higher in PPACK containing samples. Addition of heparin up to 9 units/ml to plasma had no effect on the functional fibrinogen assay.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)