Mortality and clinical course of patients with acute myocardial infarction treated with streptokinase and antioxidants: mannitol and ascorbic acid.

There is increasing evidence that free radical scavengers limit reperfusion injury in animal experiments. We randomly administered 250 ml 20% mannitol infusion and 10.0 g ascorbic acid infusion, potent free radical scavengers to 42 patients with acute myocardial infarction receiving streptokinase. A control group of 42 patients received only standard fibrinolytic therapy. We found that additional antioxidant treatment with ascorbic acid and mannitol decreased the number of some complications of acute myocardial infarction.