Reduced Dose Bolus Alteplase vs Conventional Alteplase Infusion for Pulmonary Embolism Thrombolysis An International Multicenter Randomized Trial

STUDY OBJECTIVE: To test the hypothesis that a reduced dose of bolus recombinant human tissue-type plasminogen activator (rt-PA) (0.6 mg/kg/15 min, maximum of 50 mg) would result in fewer bleeding complications than standard 100 mg of rt-PA administered as a continuous infusion over 2 h among hemodynamically stable patients with pulmonary embolism (PE). Subsidiary objectives were to compare the two rt-PA regimens with respect to the following: …