title: Tissue plasminogen activator concentrations in major abdominal surgery. Relationship to postoperative deep vein thrombosis.
abstract: Tissue plasminogen activator (t-PA) antigen concentrations were studied in 47 patients subjected to major abdominal surgery. The 17 patients, which developed postoperative deep vein thrombosis (DVT), diagnosed with the 125I-fibrinogen uptake test, had higher levels preoperatively, and on the sixth postoperative day, when the thrombi had already formed. The reduced fibrinolytic activity in patients with a predisposition to postoperative deep vein thrombosis is thus not related to any t-PA deficiency. The postoperative fibrinolytic shutdown may however partly be due to a drop in t-PA antigen levels, at least in the patients, which developed DVT.
mesh_terms: D000005:Abdomen / Q000601:surgery*; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D005342:Fibrinolysis; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010960:Plasminogen Activators / Q000032:analysis*; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000097:blood*; D013924:Thrombophlebitis / Q000097:blood*
chemical_list: D010960:Plasminogen Activators