Relation of effectiveness of intracoronary thrombolysis in acute myocardial infarction to systemic thrombolytic state.

Twenty-nine patients received intracoronary thrombolytic therapy for acute myocardial infarction 3.5 +/- 1.4 hours (mean +/- standard deviation) after the onset of pain. Ten patients received urokinase (UK) and 19 patients received streptokinase (SK). Laboratory variables of the coagulation system were measured before and immediately after therapy. When comparing patients in whom coronary artery recanalization occurred vs those in whom the artery remained occluded, those in whom recanalization was achieved had greater alterations in fibrinogen, prothrombin time, activated partial thromboplastin time, fibrin/fibrinogen degradation products and plasminogen by thrombolytic therapy than did those in whom recanalization was not achieved (p less than 0.05 for all variables). Euglobulin lysis time showed a similar but nonsignificant trend (p = 0.114). Patients who received SK showed markedly greater alterations in coagulation parameters than did patients treated with UK (p less than 0.05 for 5 of 6 variables measured) and had a much higher incidence of successful thrombolysis (74% for SK, 20% for UK). These data indicate that the development of a systemic fibrinolytic state contributes to success when using intracoronary thrombolytic agents in acute myocardial infarction. Rather than being considered an adverse effect of therapy, a systemic lytic state may serve as a reasonable clinical goal in attempting to produce thrombolysis.