title: Clinical significance of plasma D-dimer and von Willebrand factor levels in patients with ulcer colitis.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  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.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastroenterology, Chinese PLA 456 Hospital of PLA, Jinan, Shandong Province, China. gangxujn@263.net
authors.forename: Gang
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Ke-Li
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Tian
authors.forename: Guo-Ping
authors.initials: GP
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Xue-Jun
authors.initials: XJ
authors.lastname: Zhong
authors.forename: Shao-Ling
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.forename: Yan-Ping
authors.initials: YP
authors.lastname: Sun
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood; D003093:Colitis, Ulcerative / Q000097:blood*; D005260:Female; D005338:Fibrin Fibrinogen Degradation Products / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D014841:von Willebrand Factor / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D005338:Fibrin Fibrinogen Degradation Products; C036309:fibrin fragment D; D014841:von Willebrand Factor