Patent ID: 8877453

Claim:
A method of diagnosing venous thromboembolism or intracardiac thrombi in a human individual, comprising the steps of: determining a baseline blood concentration level of D-dimer in a blood sample obtained from the individual; contacting the sample obtained from the individual or an aliquot thereof with an effective amount of streptokinase to degrade soluble fibrin in the blood sample or aliquot thereof to produce a D-dimer concentration that is increased over the baseline blood level of D-dimer; and measuring the concentration of D-dimers in the sample contacted with streptokinase, wherein a difference between the concentration of D-dimer in the blood sample contacted with the streptokinase and the baseline D-dimer concentration that is greater by at least 178 ng/ml indicates that the individual has pulmonary embolism or venous thromboembolism, and wherein the D-dimer concentrations are measured using an enzyme linked immunosorbent assay or latex agglutination assay.