By way A. Rennie. Taylor Associated SAN Press FRANCISCO, of attacking Writer Oct. 24—A coronary heart dis- | these Assn. Two slightly different procedures were reported. One has been used experimentally: on animals and on a few humans. The other has been used on 24 human patients so far. Both were described encouraging results. as Dr. Ruegsegger offering The procedures used mainly on animals were reported by Dr. Paul Ruegsegger of Sloan-Kettering Institute, New York City. blood vessels a_ clot-dissolving preparation called plasmin. The clots vanished in about four hours and the preparation did not damage the heart muscle, Dr. Ruegsegger said. Plasmin, which comes from human plasma, is the system’s natural clotdissolving substance and is normally present insthe blood stream. But it works too slowly to save life if the clot closes a major artery. Dr. Ruegsegger make used a strong concentration to it work fast. Plasmin had been used before. to dissolve clots in the blood vessels of arms and legs but its use in the coro- nary arteries had not been investigated. ee Siw _ Dr. Sol Sherry, and associates pro- 1 clots experimentally in the heart arteries of animals, then injected into new ease—with chemicals injected into the arteries to dissolve blood clots quickly —was described Friday- to the Amer- ican Heart Clots BF luids Clear Coronary |New oe ported of Washington Medical School, the of use Uni- St. Louis, chemical re- streptoki- nase as a coronary clot dissolver in 24 patients whose hearts had been dam. aged. Streptokinase, he said, is the active substance in plasmin which starts the dissolving process. ~The clots themselves tain plasmin and streptokinase. naturally con- therefore also some Although streptokinase is used as a chemical to remove the debris of damaged tissue in wounds or infected areas of the body generally, it apparently leaves no undesirable effects when in- | jected into the blood stream to attack | coronary clots, Dr. Sherry said.