Abstract
Late diabetic complications are often related to vascular changes and formation of thrombi in the altered vasculature. Contributing factors to thrombosis susceptibility of diabetic patients include changes in clotting factors, platelets, and inhibition of fibrinolysis. We have measured various fibrinolytic inhibitors in the blood of diabetic children, diabetic pregnant women and their offspring, and healthy controls. Inhibitors studied included 1) fast (immediate) antiplasmin, 2) slow (progressive) antiplasmin, 3) alpha‐2‐macroglobulin, and 4) alpha‐1‐antitrypsin.
It appears from our study that high fast‐antiplasmin levels, and low or missing slow‐antiplasmin levels are characteristic of diabetic patients and of newborn of diabetic mothers. The reason for high fast‐antiplasmin levels is not clear: Levels are not connected with the age of the patient or duration of diabetes, and are not elevated in response to a fibrinolytic process (fibrin decomposition products could not be shown to be present in the serum of diabetic children).
Alpha‐2‐macroglobulin was significantly higher and alpha‐1‐antitrypsin significantly lower in diabetic women than in controls. In the other groups of patients studied differences in these inhibitors from the appropriate control groups were not statistically significant.