Fibrinogen/Fibrin Degradation Products in Serum of Patients with Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura: Elevated Levels during Severe Thrombocytopenic Phase of the Disease

Toshiro Nagasawa; Ichiro Kono; Tetsushi Sakurai; Heihachiro Kashiwagi

doi:10.1055/s-0038-1647961

Thrombosis and Haemostasis, Table of Contents

Thromb Haemost 1976; 35(03): 628-634
DOI: 10.1055/s-0038-1647961

Original Article

Schattauer GmbH

Fibrinogen/Fibrin Degradation Products in Serum of Patients with Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura: Elevated Levels during Severe Thrombocytopenic Phase of the Disease

Toshiro Nagasawa

¹First Department of Internal Medicine, Tokyo Medical and Dental University School of Medicine Tokyo 113, Japan, University of Tsukuba School of Medicine, Ibaraki 300-31, Japan

,

Ichiro Kono

¹First Department of Internal Medicine, Tokyo Medical and Dental University School of Medicine Tokyo 113, Japan, University of Tsukuba School of Medicine, Ibaraki 300-31, Japan

,

Tetsushi Sakurai

¹First Department of Internal Medicine, Tokyo Medical and Dental University School of Medicine Tokyo 113, Japan, University of Tsukuba School of Medicine, Ibaraki 300-31, Japan

,

Heihachiro Kashiwagi

¹First Department of Internal Medicine, Tokyo Medical and Dental University School of Medicine Tokyo 113, Japan, University of Tsukuba School of Medicine, Ibaraki 300-31, Japan

› Author Affiliations

Abstract

Summary

Sera from 23 patients with idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP), 14 patients with aplastic anemia with severe thrombocytopenia and healthy control subj ects were tested for the presence of fibrinogen/fibrin degradation products (FDP), using the tanned red cell hemagglutination inhibition immunoassay. The concentrations of circulating FDP of ITP patients (mean 12.01 μg/ml) were significantly higher than those of the patients with aplastic anemia (mean 4.01 μg/ml, p <0.05) or normal controls (mean 3.10 μg/ml, p <0.001). The patients with untreated ITP with very low platelet counts had higher levels of FDP than those of the treated group (p < 0.01). Serum FDP and a battery of other coagulation-fibrinolysis tests were serially carried out over a period of 10 weeks in two patients with ITP. The initially high FDP promptly decreased as circulating platelets increased in response to steroid in both patients, while plasma fibrinogen, euglobulin lysis time, prothrombin time and partial thromboplastin time remained essentially normal during the course of observation. The exact source of the increased serum FDP in ITP was not extablished, but a few possible mechanisms responsible for this abnormality were discussed.

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References

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