Abstract
In recent years, the incidence of myocardial infarction has increased re markably in Japan, possibly because life styles have become westernized. Coronary care units have been established in many institutions, and various therapeutic modalities combining different drugs and surgical procedures are being used in the treatment of coronary artery disease with fairly good results. However, such medical treatment involves only preventive therapy against the progression of coronary arteriosclerosis or symptomatic therapy for myocar dial infarction. As for positive therapy, only the thrombolytic method using urokinase (UK) is considered to be therapeutically justified or effective.
UK is believed to lyse thrombi appearing in the coronary artery and to prevent the extension of infarct by inhibiting the occurrence of secondary thrombi. The author has reported the results of previous studies using UK for treatment of myocardial infarction.1-3 In the present study, UK was adminis tered to patients with myocardial infarction who went coronary angiography.
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