[Cost-benefit study of different thrombolytic strategies in treating 156 patients with symptomatic pulmonary thromboembolism].

OBJECTIVE: To compare the costs and benefits of different thrombolytic strategies with urokinase (UK) and recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (rt-PA) in treating acute pulmonary thromboembolism (PTE), with aim of providing optimal thrombolytic medication. METHODS: Data from 156 patients with PTE from January 2006 to December 2011 in Tangshan Gongren Hospital was analyzed retrospectively. All patients were treated by thrombolysis, among them 104 patients were treated with 1×10(4) U/kg of UK and 52 patients were treated with 50 mg of rt-PA. The therapeutic effects of two methods were compared and the complication incidence rate and medical cost were also compared. RESULTS: There were no significant differences in the symptom remission rate, the recanalization rate, and the incidence of complications between UK group and rt-PA group (68.2% vs. 71.2%, 63.5% vs. 73.1%, 14.4% vs. 17.3%, all P > 0.05), but the treatment cost (yuan) of UK group was remarkably lower than that of rt-PA group (408 ± 120 vs. 6500 ± 634, P < 0.01). CONCLUSION: Different thrombolytic strategies with UK and rt-PA yield similar efficacy, however, the medical cost was significant decreased in UK group.