Fibrinous pericarditis and fibrinolysis in chronic dialysis patients.

During a four year period 6 patients from the total of 120 on home dialysis developed pericarditis with effusions. Plasma fibrinolytic activity, measured by euglobulin clot lysis time, was significantly reduced in these patients compared with either normal controls or dialysis patients without pericarditis. These dialysis patients without pericarditis as a group tended to have reduced plasma fibrinolytic activity compared with controls, but the difference was not significant. It is suggested that a reduction in the body's fibrinolytic activity may be a factor in the development of fibrinous pericarditis in chronic renal failure.