Enzymatic and immunochemical determination of plasminogen and plasmin in different physiological and pathological states.

Plasminogen and plasmin have been determined in the same plasma samples in normal subjects and in various physiological and pathological conditions (pregnancy, liver cirrhosis, untreated cancer, and myocardial infarction during treatment with streptokinase) by means of two different methods. These were an enzymatic assay and a new immunochemical assay based on radial immunodiffusion employing cellulose acetate strips.A significant correlation was found in normal subjects. However, in the other conditions marked discrepancies were observed in the results by the two methods. These findings might be related to variations in the functional activity of plasminogen and plasmin in disease.