Activation of Fibrinolytic System during Open Heart Surgery

개심술중 섬유소융해계의 활성화에 관한 연구

Hemorrhagic tendency observed in open heart surgery patients has been attributed, among other causes, to increased fibrinolytic activity during extracorporeal circulation. But the exact mechanism of enhanced fibrinolytic activity which occurs during extracorporeal circulation is still unknown. So, we studied and compared the changes of parameters of fibrinolytic and protein C system according to time obtained from the plasma of 31 adult open heart surgery patients[EGG group] and 10 adult general thoracic surgery patients[control group], in order to confirm the hypothesis that the activated protein C system might affect the fibrinolytic system during extracorporeal circulation. In ECC group, the nature of the enhanced fibrinolytic activity that evolved during extracorporeal circulation was characterized by significant increase in fibrin degradation products[P < 0.01] and significant decrease in plasminogen and alpha2-antiplasmin[P < 0.05, P < 0.01] in spite of adequate amount of heparin administration. These changes were most pronounced in the early phase of extracorporeal circulation and normalized after termination of extracorporeal circulation. The results of these observations were the same after volume correction with the value of hematocrit. The change of volume corrected protein C ratio during extracorporeal circulation revealed similar pattern to those of plasminogen and alpha2-antiplasmin [P < 0.01], but volume corrected ratio of free protein S showed significant increase after the commencement of extracorporeal circulation then decreased after extracorporeal circulation. Although the above mentioned changes occur similarly in both bubble type oxygenator-used and membrane oxygenator-used patients groups, but the degree of decrease was more severe in membrane oxygenator-used patients group [P < 0.01] and showed much slower recovery to reach to the preextracorporeal circulation level. These results confirm the hypothesis that the enhanced fibrinolysis during extracorporeal circulation might be caused by the activation of protein C system and the activation is possibly linked to the appearance of thrombin from contact activation of blood after wide exposure to the synthetic surfaces of extracorporeal circuit. Key words: Extracorporeal circulation, Enhanced fibrinolysis, Protein C system.