Increase in fibrinolytic activity by venous occlusion

Abstract

Venous occlusion for 10 min, by a sphygmomanometer cuff applied above the elbow and maintained at a pressure midway between systolic and diastolic pressure, increases the fibrinolytic activity of the blood within the occluded part of the arm. In six normal human subjects the magnitude of this increase was compared with changes in blood cellular elements, plasma protein concentration, plasma antifibrinolytic activity, and plasma levels of glutamic-oxalacetic transaminase (GOT) and glutamic-pyruvic transaminase (GPT). The increase in fibrinolytic activity of the euglobulin fraction of the plasma was 3–20 times larger than the increase in plasma protein concentration and 8–24 times larger than the increase in hematocrit. Venous occlusion produced a rise in antiplasmin and antiurokinase activity of the plasma. The level of GOT in the plasma rose significantly more than the plasma protein concentration. These observations tend to indicate that the activation of fibrinolysis during venous occlusion is brought about by the release of intracellular enzyme(s). fibrinolytic activity of blood; euglobulins; antiplasmin; antiurokinase Submitted on May 31, 1963