Fibrinogen degradation product levels on arrival for trauma patients requiring a transfusion even without head injury

BACKGROUND: There have been few reports on the clinical significance of the fibrinogen degradation product(FDP) level in trauma patients with and without head injury. We retrospectively analyzed trauma patients with or without head injury to investigate the clinical signifi cance of the FDP level.METHODS: From April 2013 to June 2015, a medical chart review was retrospectively performed for all patients with trauma. The exclusion criteria included patients who did not receive a transfusion. The patients were divided into two groups: a FDP>100 group, which included patients who had an FDP level on arrival over 100 ng/m L, and a FDP≤100 group.RESULTS: The ratio of open fractures and the prothrombin ratio in the FDP>100 group were significantly smaller than those observed in the FDP≤100 group. The average age, ratio of blunt injury, Injury Severity Score(ISS), volume of transfusion and mortality ratio in the FDP>100 group were signifi cantly greater than those in the FDP≤100 group. There was a weakly positive correlation between the FDP level and ISS(R=0.35, P=0.002), but it was not associated with the transfusion volume. The results of an analysis excluding patients with head injury showed a similar tendency.CONCLUSION: The FDP levels may be a useful biochemical parameter for the initial evaluation of the severity of trauma and mortality even in blunt traumatized patients without head injury or with stable vital signs.

Clinical significance of plasma D-dimer and von Willebrand factor levels in patients with ulcer colitis

AIM: To investigate the levels of D-dimer(DD) and von Willebrand factor(vWF) and the relationship between DD and vWF in ulcerative colitis(UC) patients. METHODS: A total of 29 plasma specimens were obtained from patients with ulcerative colitis (male 13, female 16) aged 21-47 years (33+/-11). Disease activity was assessed by Truelove-Writeria. Patients with a score of above 5 were regarded as having active colitis. Twenty healthy people(male 12, female 8) aged 19-53 years(31+/-14) served as normal controls. Blood samples were taken from an antecubital vein puncture. Blood(1.8 mL) was injected into the tubes containing sodium citrate (0.13 mmol/L). The plasma was obtained by centrifugation at 3000 r.min(-1) for 10 min, and stored at -80 degrees until assayed by ELISA. RESULTS: The mean plasma levels of DD and vWF in active UC patients were significantly higher than those of the controls (0.69+/-0.41 vs 0.27+/-0.11, P【0.01 143+/-46 vs 103+/-35, P【0.01). The mean plasma levels of DD in the patients with active disease were higher than those with inactive disease(0.69+/-0.41 vs 0.48+/-0.29 P【0.05). The levels of vWF were not different between active and inactive patients. DD levels were positively related to vWF levels( r =0.574, P【0.01). There was no significant difference between levels of DD and vWF and the scope of disease and sex of the patients. CONCLUSION: vWF is an important feature and a good marker of UC intravascular thrombus and endothelial cell dysfunction were found in UC patients and the combined test of DD and vWF is helpful to distinguish the activity of the UC patients.