Abstract: Aim To evaluate the efficacy and safety of urokinase (UK) combined with magnesium sulfate (MS) in the treatment of early acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Methods One hundred and fifty-one patients with AMI admitted to hospitals from December 1991 to May 1998 were randomly divided into two groups, 76 cases in UK plus MS (UM) group and 75 cases in UK group. In UM group, MS begen to be used 15 minites before intravenous drip of UK. Dose of UK in both groups was equivalent. The patency of infarct-elated coronary artery within three hours (including delayed patency)was assessed by uniform clinical criteria. Results The recanalization rate was higher in UM group than in UK group, but there was no statistical significance (73.7% vs 65.3%, P ＞0.05) five week mortality was 1.3% and 9.3% respectively. The difference was abvious (P＜0.05). Incidence of reperfusion arrhythmias was dramatically decreased (64.3 vs 87.8%, P＜0.01) in UM group. Moreover frequency of severe arrhythmias after thrombolysis was much lower in UM group than that in UK group (10.5% vs 28.0%, P＜0.01). In comparison with UK group, incidences of left heart failure (11.8% vs 25.3%) early postinfarction angina (3.9% vs 13.3%) reinfarction and infarct extension (2.6% vs 10.7%) were significantly reduced (all P＜0.05) in UM group, and frequency of cardiogenic shock (3.9% vs 8.0%) was lower, but it was not significant (P ＞0.05). Conolusions The efficacy of UK combined with is was superior to that of UK alone, for AMI and MS might be an effective and safe adjunct for thrombolytic therapy

Key words: urokinase, magnesium sulfate, acute myocardial infarction, thrombolytic ther-^apy