Ipsilon (ε-amino-caproic acid) has been reported to have the ability to inhibit completely at a small concentration the activity of plasmin.3 The measurement of antiplasmin power in that investigation was studied by using fibrin clots.
The capacity of Ipsilon to inhibit a lytic system in the blood stream may have considerable promise in clinical medicine. The drug may provide a means of producing coagulation of the blood in patients whose clots undergo spontaneous lysis. Ipsilon might also serve as an antidote in patients who have had a lytic system established by streptokinase for the treatment of thrombosis. A conceivable extension of the use of streptokinase would be to produce an incoagulable blood in patients undergoing cardiac surgery when the heart-lung machine is used with the lytic system reversed by Ipsilon. The many clinical uses to which the drug could be put, particularly to inhibit the effects produced by streptokinase