title: Thrombelastometry-guided thrombolytic therapy in massive pulmonary artery embolism.
abstract: We report a case of a patient who suffered a massive pulmonary embolism with cardiac arrest on post-operative day 4 after a Whipple operation. Despite thrombolytic therapy with the recommended maximal bolus of 50 mg recombinant tissue type plasminogen activator (rt-PA), thrombelastometry showed no signs of fibrinolysis and cardiogenic shock persisted, after only a transient hemodynamic improvement. Not until a repeat bolus of 25 mg rt-PA and an infusion of 50 mg/h did thrombelastometry demonstrate complete fibrinolysis. Although only residual emboli were seen on computed tomography, the patient died secondary to refractory right heart failure. This demonstrates that the standard dosing of thrombolytics may fail in a subgroup of patients, and suggests that thrombelastometry may be useful for early dose adjustment when standard dosing regimens fail.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine, Eberhard-Karls University, Tuebingen, Germany.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ploppa
authors.forename: K E
authors.initials: KE
authors.lastname: Unertl
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Nohe
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011655:Pulmonary Embolism / Q000188:drug therapy*; D013916:Thrombelastography / Q000379:methods*; D015912:Thrombolytic Therapy; D010959:Tissue Plasminogen Activator / Q000627:therapeutic use
chemical_list: D010959:Tissue Plasminogen Activator