Pulmonary emboli are detectable by filling defects in the pulmonary vasculature upon pulmonary angiography. Emboli derived from venous thrombi are rich in fibrin to which thrombin remains bound. Hirudin, a specific thrombin inhibitor, binds to thrombin to yield a 1:1 stoichiometric complex. We examined whether 131I-recombinant hirudin (r-hirudin) could be used to detect pulmonary emboli in rabbits. Clots were formed by re-calcifying rabbit plasma in vitro, and then injected (0.034 ml) into a femoral vein to lodge in the lungs. 131I-r-hirudin (29 +/- 4 microCi/kg) was injected intravenously but emboli could not be detected by gamma camera in real time. Post-mortem analysis of lung tissue showed that 131I-r-hirudin did not associate with emboli prepared with 125I-fibrin. Because of these findings, we used different techniques to look at the binding of hirudin to plasma clots. Clots formed in vitro were incubated with 131I-r-hirudin in the presence of equimolar amounts of 125I-albumin; specific binding of 131I-r-hirudin was not observed. Experiments with immobilized fibrin(ogen) showed that 125I-r-hirudin did not bind to and remain with fibrin-bound 131I-thrombin but did lead to the inactivation and displacement of up to 70% of bound thrombin as r-hirudin-thrombin complex; residual thrombin bound to fibrin remained active. Thus, released r-hirudin-thrombin complex is probably cleared rapidly from the region of the embolus in vivo; radioiodinated r-hirudin may not, therefore, be useful as a marker for detecting emboli.