Thrombolytic Therapy: Current Status

ONE decade after the Food and Drug Administration approved the plasminogen activators streptokinase and urokinase, thrombolytic therapy is no longer a novel approach to the treatment of thrombotic disease. Originally recommended for the treatment of proximal deep-vein thrombosis and serious pulmonary embolism, this approach is now also used for treating acute peripheral arterial thrombosis and embolisms and acute coronary thrombosis and for unclotting catheters and shunts. We are now about to enter the "thrombolytic era" of management of acute myocardial infarction by taking advantage of the readily available and rapid intravenous route instead of the cumbersome intracoronary approach. There have . . .