Protein C values in young patients with acute myocardial infarction

ABSTRACT

Protein C is a recently described regulator of frinbrinolysis. Protein C was assayed in 20 young patients with acute myocardial infarction and 10 healthy controls. The mean protein C value was significantly higher in patients with acute myocardial infarction [137% +/- 17.8] than controls [86.4% +/- 6.7].The increase in protein C after myocardial infarction counteracts the increase in procoagulatory factors such as factor VII and fibrinogen, thus maintains an equilibrium between coagulation and fibrinolysis