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38 patients with severe chronic arteritis of the lower limbs were treated with streptokinase intermittently. All had been refused for surgical operation. One patient died, 4 others had early interruption of treatment. Eleven of the 38 patients had efficient thrombolysis confirmed by arteriography. The facts confirm the possibility of thrombolysis during chronic arterial disease. The fact that the aggravation was recent was favourable factor in prognosis. The eleven patients improved, had severe aggravation of symptomes for less than 2 months. Thus thrombolytic treatment has a place of choice in the treatment of severe arterial disease where surgery is impossible, or dangerous, owing to the uncertain state of the vascular bed below the lesion. Efficacious, it permits reconstructive surgery in cases where it had been at first refused. The use of intermittent treatment, apart from advantages of confort and cost, seems to increase the efficacy of treatment.

Antithrombin III concentration was studied in 86 patients with recurrent or extensive venous thrombosis. Two of them were found to have an hereditary antithrombin III deficiency. 25 patients receiving heparin therapy had low antithrombin III concentration. After stopping heparin treatment antithrombin rose to a normal level. Pathological antithrombin III modifications are recalled (synthesis decrease in liver diseases, intra vascular consumption during active venous thrombosis). Antithrombin III decreased activity induced by heparin treatment is pointed out.

Changes in blood coagulation following the action of intermittent treatment with streptokinase are studied : 1) Fibrinogenemia remains at a concentration slightly higher than that obtained after the first 16 hour perfusion. 2) The thrombin time becomes considerably longer on the first day, then becomes shorter and remains slightly long throughout treatment. The theoretical interest of the rise in plasminogen levels during interruption of perfusions of streptokinase is discussed.

An electron microscope study of the arrector pili muscle, using biopsies obtained from clinically and histologically healthy skin in 3 cases of scleroderma, showed the primary origin of the muscle disorders. They showed a certain number of changes, both of the differentiated cytoplasm and of the common cytoplasm.