title: Evidence for a relationship between high fibrinogen levels and decreased thrombin activity in vivo in elderly subjects.
abstract: In order to investigate whether high fibrinogen levels were associated with elevated thrombin activity, we measured fibrinogen and fibrinopeptide A in 37 elderly healthy subjects ranging from 60 to 93 years. Fibrinogen levels (519.1 +/- 127.0 mg/dl) and fibrinopeptide A (5.9, 0.9-18.1 ng/ml) were significantly higher than in younger controls. A highly significant negative linear correlation was found between fibrinogen and fibrinopeptide A in the elderly subjects (p less than 0.01). However, a polynomial regression showed that this negative relationship was present at the fibrinogen levels ranging between 420 and 700 mg/dl. Our results suggest that high fibrinogen levels in elderly subjects do not necessarily mean that their thrombin activity is concomitantly increased.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Internal Medicine, University of Cagliari, Italy.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Marongiu
authors.forename: A M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Mamusa
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Dessalvi
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Mameli
authors.forename: A B
authors.initials: AB
authors.lastname: Cambuli
authors.forename: G G
authors.initials: GG
authors.lastname: Sorano
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Conti
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Farci
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Balestrieri
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000097:blood*; D005260:Female; D005340:Fibrinogen / Q000032:analysis*; D005344:Fibrinopeptide A / Q000032:analysis; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D013917:Thrombin / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D005344:Fibrinopeptide A; D005340:Fibrinogen; D013917:Thrombin