Recombinant Hirudin (Lepirudin) for the Improvement of Thrombolysis
Journal of the American College of Cardiology Vol. 34, No. 4, 1999 © 1999 by the American College of Cardiology ISSN 0735-1097/99/$20.00 Published by Elsevier Science Inc. PII S0735-1097(99)00319-8 CLINICAL STUDIES Myocardial Infarction Recombinant Hirudin (Lepirudin) for the Improvement of Thrombolysis With Streptokinase in Patients With Acute Myocardial Infarction Results of the HIT-4 Trial Karl-Ludwig Neuhaus, MD,* G. Peter Molhoek, MD,† Uwe Zeymer, MD,* Ulrich Tebbe, MD,‡ Karl Wegscheider, PHD,§ Rolf Schro¨der, MD, FACC,§ Anne Camez, MD, G. Jan Laarman, MD,¶ Gilles M. Grollier, MD,# Dirk J. A. Lok, MD,** Holger Kuckuck, MD,†† Peter Lazarus, MD,‡‡ for the HIT-4 Investigators Kassel, Berlin, and Marburg, Germany; Twente and Amsterdam, The Netherlands; and Caen, France OBJECTIVES The purpose of this study was to compare recombinant hirudin and heparin as adjuncts to streptokinase thrombolysis in patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI). BACKGROUND Experimental studies and previous small clinical trials suggest that specific thrombin inhibition improves early patency rates and clinical outcome in patients treated with streptokinase. METHODS In a randomized double-blind, multicenter trial, 1,208 patients with AMI Յ6 h were treated with aspirin and streptokinase and randomized to receive recombinant hirudin (lepirudin, IV bolus of 0.2 mg/kg, followed by subcutaneous (SC) injections of 0.5 mg/kg b.i.d. for 5 to 7 days) or heparin (IV placebo bolus, followed by SC injections of 12,500 IU b.i.d. for 5 to 7 days). A total of 447 patients were included in the angiographic substudy in which the primary end point, 90-min Thrombolysis in Myocardial Infarction (TIMI) flow grade 3 of the infarct-related artery, was evaluated, while the other two-thirds served as “safety group” in which only clinical end points were evaluated.
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