Fibrinolytic activity and protein C in preeclampsia.

Various parameters of the fibrinolytic system and antigenic and functional protein C and its inhibitor were studied during normal pregnancy and in patients with preeclampsia. The fast acting tissue-type plasminogen activator inhibitor level was found to increase progressively during normal pregnancy. This increase was more evident in cases of severe preeclampsia (p less than 0.05). No variations were observed in protein C levels in normal pregnancies but a reduction in protein C level was noted in patients with severe preeclampsia (p less than 0.01). In preeclampsia, the protein C inhibitor level was higher than in normal pregnancy; it was also higher in normal pregnancy when compared to the control group.