this drug is confusing me, is it just me

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I think maybe it's the wording and I'm misreading it or something? Can anyone briefly explain please because Google isn't helping me much either!

For Aminocaproic acid (Amicar) it says

Class: fibrinolysis inhibitor

Action: inhibits activation of plasminogen. Plasminogen is a serum protease that can be activated to form clots.

Antidote for TPA (clot buster)

Where I am getting confused is the action and why it's an antidote for TPA. If Amicar is inhibiting plasminogen then isn't it preventing blood clots? But that's wrong because it's used to treat hemmorhage. How does preventing plasminogen form blood clots? Wait.. I'm confused haha.... please unconfuse my muddled brain! I've been studying cardiac drugs for a while. Thanks!

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Specializes in NICU, RNC.

Excuse typos I'm on my phone. What you should do is instead look at the action of TPA to help you figure it out. In my drug book, the action of TPA is "converts plaminogen to plasmin...." I won't type the whole thing because you can already see the answer. If that's the mechanism of action, then Inhibiting the action of plasminogen means that the TPA cannot carry out it's action.

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Specializes in Family Nurse Practitioner.

I think you have to look up how Alteplase works in order to figure out how Amicar is the "antidote."

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