Fibrinogen half-life in children with cyanotic congenital heart disease

✍ Scribed by W. -R. Thies; U. Göbel; R. Liersch

• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 1982
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 527 KB
• Volume: 139
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0340-6997
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00442078

✦ Synopsis

Fibrinogen half-life was determined in 3 healthy individuals and in 17 children with cyanotic congenital heart disease. Fibrinogen half-life was normal in the healthy individuals and shortened in 9 of the 17 patients. The simultaneously performed coagulation tests were often pathological but did not lead to a clear diagnosis of the haemostatic defect and did not correlate with the fibrinogen half-life. Significant correlations were found between fibrinogen half-life and red cell count (P < 0.001), packed cell volume (P < 0.001), mean corpuscular vdlume of the red cell (P < 0.001), platelet count (P < 0.01), aortic oxygen saturatiori (P< 0.001), base excess (P< 0.01), and maximal amplitude ofth~ thrombelastography (P< 0.001). The results indicate a definite relationship between the hypoxaemia and the frequently observed disturbance ofhaemostasis in cyanotic heart disease. The chronic hypoxaemia causes a partly compensated intravascular coagulation with increased fibrinogen metabolism.