RANDOMISED CONTROLLED TRIAL OF RECOMBINANT TISSUE PLASMINOGEN ACTIVATOR VERSUS UROKINASE IN THE TREATMENT OF ACUTE PULMONARY EMBOLISM

Samuel Z. Goldhaber, John Heit, G. V.R.K. Sharma, J. Stevan Nagel, Ducksoo Kim, J. Anthony Parker, David Drum, Kathleen Reagan, James Anderson, Craig M. Kessler, John Markis, Douglas Dawley, Michael Meyerovitz, Douglas E. Vaughan, Sabah S. Tumeh, Joseph Loscalzo, Andrew P. Selwyn, Eugene Braunwald

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

271 Scopus citations

Abstract

The effect of intravenous recombinant human tissue-type plasminogen activator (rt-PA) was compared with that of urokinase in 45 patients with angiographically documented pulmonary embolism (PE) in a randomised controlled trial. The two principal end-points were clot lysis at 2 h, as assessed by angiography, and pulmonary reperfusion at 24 h, as assessed by perfusion lung scanning. All patients received the full dose of rt-PA but urokinase infusions were terminated prematurely (on average after 18 h) in 9 patients because of allergy in 1 and uncontrollable bleeding in 8. By 2 h, 82% of rt-PA-treated patients showed clot lysis, compared with 48% of urokinase-treated patients (p=0·008; 95% CI for the difference = 10-58%). Improvement in lung scan reperfusion at 24 h was identical in the two treatment groups. The reduction in fibrinogen did not differ significantly between the rt-PA and urokinase groups (45% vs 39% at 2 h and 34% vs 40% at 24 h). The results indicate that in the dose regimens employed, rt-PA acts more rapidly and is safer than urokinase in the treatment of acute PE.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)293-298
Number of pages6
JournalThe Lancet
Volume332
Issue number8606
DOIs
StatePublished - Aug 6 1988

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Medicine

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