In vivo diagnostic and therapeutic uses of monoclonal antibodies in cardiology.

Antibodies, long used as discriminating tools in immunoassay, are now being used in vivo, both in diagnosis and therapy. In cardiovascular medicine, applications that have reached the stage of clinical trial include the reversal of digitalis intoxication by digoxin-specific antibodies and the imaging of cardiac necrosis with monoclonal myosin-specific antibodies. An exciting future prospect, still in an early experimental stage, is the application of fibrin-specific monoclonal antibodies to both the visualization of thrombi and emboli and the targeting of fibrinolytic agents.