[Therapeutic defibrination by arwin in unstable angina pectoris combined with hyperfibrinogenaemia (author's transl)]. / Defibrinierende Therapie der instabilen Angina pectoris bei Hyperfibrinogenämie durch Arwin.

Therapeutic defibrination by Arwin was induced in a group of nine patients suffering from unstable angina combined with hyperfibrinogenaemia and in a further six patients who developed hyperfibrinogenaemia accompanied by angina pectoris after thrombolytic therapy with streptokinase for recent myocardial infarction. In patients of the former group with unstable angina a mean pretreatment plasma fibrinogen concentration of 4.9 g/1 was lowered to 1.4 g/l over a period of four weeks, whilst in the latter group, the plasma fibrinogen was lowered from 5.7 g/l to 2.0 g/l over 10 days. In all cases a remarkable improvement in the severe anginal symptoms was achieved already at fibrinogen levels within the lower range of normal. This improvement outlasted the period of therapy in most patients. Two patients died following acute myocardial infarction; one of the patients with unstable angina died 15 months after Arwin therapy and the second patient discontinued therapy after one week and died three weeks later.

[Acute primary plasma cell leukemia (author's transl)]. / Akutes Auftreten einer primären Plasmazell-Leukämie

The sudden onset of plasma cell leukemia with IgG-lambda-paraproteinaemia is reported in a 59-year-old patient. In the year before clinical manifestation of the disease the patient was examined and treated for a duodenal ulcer and a head injury on three separate occasions in different wards of the hospital without detection of any sign of disease of the haemopoetic system. The clinical features and course of the disease resembled those of acute leukaemia, the maximum percentage of plasma cells in the peripheral blood being 72 and in the bone marrow 98. Osteolytic bone lesions were not observed and there was no renal insufficiency. Therapy with mephelan-prednisolone and cyclophosphamide-prednisolone was not successful in influencing the fatal outcome of the disease.

Influence of Etofibrate on plasma fibrinogen and plasminogen concentrations in patients with different forms of primary hyperlipoproteinemia.

The effect of Etofibrate, a chemical compound of the two antihyperlipidemic agents Clofibrate and nicotinic acid, on elevated plasma fibrinogen and plasminogen concentrations was investigated in a 6 months' survey in 25 patients with different types of primary hyperlipidemia. A consistent reduction of fibrinogen levels to normal occurred after 6 months' therapy, whereas the effect on plasminogen concentrations was weaker and not significant. The fibrinogen-lowering effect of Etofibrate was not related to the pretreatment levels but nearly equal in all cases. The possible consequences on the hemostatic system are discussed. On account of the low daily dosage, apart from a slight flush, no side-effects were noted.