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BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: We compared the fibrinolytic activity of tenecteplase and alteplase in patients with acute ischemic stroke, and explored the association between hypofibrinogenaemia and intracerebral hemorrhage. METHODS: Venous blood samples from a subgroup of participants in the Alteplase-Tenecteplase Trial Evaluation for Stroke Thrombolysis (ATTEST) study were obtained at pretreatment, 3 to 12 hours, and 24±3 hours post-intravenous thrombolysis for analyses of plasminogen, plasminogen activator inhibitor-1, d-dimer, factor V, fibrinogen, and fibrin(ogen) degradation products, in addition to routine coagulation assays. Related sample Wilcoxon signed-rank tests were used to test the within-group changes, and independent Mann-Whitney tests for between-group differences. RESULTS: Thirty patients were included (alteplase=14 and tenecteplase=16) with similar baseline demographics. Compared with baseline, alteplase caused significant hypofibrinogenaemia (P=0.002), prolonged prothrombin time (P=0.011), hypoplasminogenaemia (P=0.001), and lower factor V (P=0.002) at 3 to 12 hours after administration with persistent hypofibrinogenaemia at 24 hours (P=0.011), whereas only minor hypoplasminogenaemia (P=0.029) was seen in the tenecteplase group. Tenecteplase consumed less plasminogen (P<0.001) and fibrinogen (P=0.002) compared with alteplase. CONCLUSIONS: In patients with acute ischemic stroke, alteplase 0.9 mg/kg caused significant disruption of the fibrinolytic system, whereas tenecteplase 0.25 mg/kg did not, consistent with the trend toward lower intracerebral hemorrhage incidence with tenecteplase in the ATTEST study. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION: URL: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov. Unique identifier: NCT01472926.
Huang et al. (Fri,) studied this question.