It has been generally assumed that the clinical use of heparin is simply an extension of the initial laboratory use to prevent blood coagulation in test tubes and cannulae. Here the effects of mixing heparin with blood appear to be the same in vivo and in vitro. Evidence was obtained early that this was an oversimplification of the situation and the large amount of data that has now accumulated calls for a reevaluation of this basic assumption in a number of aspects which bear on the clinical use of this important drug.
DISSIMILARITY BETWEEN IN VIVO and IN VITRO EFFECTS OF HEPARINThe most clear-cut demonstration that the effects of heparin in vivo are not the same as those when this drag is added to blood in vitro is the appearance of enzymes in the general circulation which were not present in significant amounts before injection of the drug-e.g., lipoprotein lipase [70] and diamine oxidase [15], also known as histaminase. This dissimilarity was early indicated for the effect of heparin on thrombosis when compared with coagulation tests in vitro. Solandt and Best [103], in the initial paper to report the use of heparin in an extracorporeal circulation, measured the effectiveness of heparin in preventing platelet thrombi in glass chambers inserted in arteriovenous shunts in dogs. Immediately after the injection of heparin, the clotting time reached infinity (the blood became incoagulable), as was the case when a comparable amount of heparin was added to the blood outside the body. However, formation of thrombi was not prevented until 20-60 minutes after the injection. When the clotting time had again become measurable 2-7 hours later, thrombus formation did not occur. It was not for yet another hour (when the clotting time was essentially normal) that accumulation of platelets and formation of thrombi occurred again in the shunt. Hence, the anticoagulant effect and the prevention of thrombus formation appeared to be two distinct properties of heparin.