The use of thrombolytic agents: choice of patient, drug administration, laboratory monitoring.

A proper choice of patient is critical in assuring both a satisfactory degree of lysis of the thrombus or embolus and a clinical course uncomplicated by serious hemorrhage. The best patients to treat are those who are seriously and acutely ill but without anatomic lesions that may bleed excessively. Thrombolytic agents can be administered by standard courses of therapy, and the monitoring of treatment with laboratory tests has been simplified and is concerned primarily with the documentation of a "lytic state."