Ischemic events after successful thrombolysis have been reported to occur in 18-32% of patients treated for acute myocardial infarction with thrombolytic therapy, and previous studies in which patients received streptokinase suggest that risk of early recurrent ischemia is closely related to the presence of a high-grade residual stenosis. If these events are predictable after intravenous recombinant tissue-plasminogen activator (rt-PA) thrombolytic therapy, then further intervention after its use could be targeted at selected patients. One-hundred ninety-two patients from the Thrombolysis and Angioplasty in Myocardial Infarction (TAMI) I and TAMI III trials had successful rt-PA-mediated thrombolysis without immediate coronary angioplasty (PTCA). One-hundred seventy-four of these patients (92%) had prehospital discharge angiography. The mean age was 56 +/- 11 years; 81% were men; the infarct-related artery was the left anterior descending in 76 (39.8%), the left circumflex in 24 (12.6%), and the right coronary artery in 91 (47.6%). Thrombolysis with rt-PA resulted in a residual 73 +/- 13% diameter and 0.95 +/- 0.51 mm stenosis by quantitative coronary arteriography, and Thrombolysis in Myocardial Infarction (TIMI) flow grade 2 in 59.2% and 3 in 40.8% of stenoses as assessed on angiograms obtained 90 minutes after the initiation of rt-PA therapy. Recurrent ischemic events (ischemia requiring emergency percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty or urgent bypass surgery, reocclusion of the infarct-related artery, or cardiac death) occurred in 41 patients (21.3%).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)