Association of activated partial thromboplastin time and fibrinogen level in patients with type II diabetes mellitus

Predictive value of admission D-dimer levels in patient with acute ischaemic stroke and COVID-19: a second-wave prospective cohort study

OBJECTIVES

This study aimed to evaluate the predictive value of admission D-dimer levels for in-hospital mortality in patients with COVID-19 and acute ischaemic stroke.

DESIGN

Cohort (prospective).

SETTING

Tertiary referral hospital in the capital city of Indonesia conducted from June to December 2021.

PARTICIPANTS

60 patients with acute ischaemic stroke and COVID-19 were included. Patients were classified into D-dimer groups (low and high) according to a 2 110 ng/mL cut-off value, determined via receiver operating characteristic analysis.

PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOME MEASURES

The primary outcome was in-hospital mortality, with admission D-dimer levels as the major predictor. Secondary outcomes included associations between other demographic and clinical variables and the admission D-dimer value. Kaplan-Meier method was used to carry out survival analysis, with univariable and multivariable Cox regression performed to assess the association of D-dimer levels and other confounding variables (including demographic, clinical and laboratory parameters) with in-hospital mortality.

RESULTS

The findings demonstrated an association between elevated admission D-dimer levels (≥2 110 ng/mL) and an increased likelihood of death during hospitalisation. The adjusted HR was 14.054 (95% CI 1.710 to 115.519; p=0.014), demonstrating an increase in mortality risk after accounting for confounders such as age and diabetes history. Other significant predictors of mortality included a history of diabetes and increased white blood cell count.

CONCLUSIONS

Admission D-dimer levels may be a useful predictive indicator for the likelihood of death during hospitalisation in individuals with COVID-19 and acute ischaemic stroke.

PEGylated Polyester Nanoparticles Trigger Adverse Events in a Large Animal Model of Trauma and in Naı̈ve Animals: Understanding Cytokine and Cellular Correlations with These Events

Intravenously infusible nanoparticles to control bleeding have shown promise in rodents, but translation into preclinical models has been challenging as many of these nanoparticle approaches have resulted in infusion responses and adverse outcomes in large animal trauma models. We developed a hemostatic nanoparticle technology that was screened to avoid one component of the infusion response: complement activation. We administered these hemostatic nanoparticles, control nanoparticles, or saline volume controls in a porcine polytrauma model. While the hemostatic nanoparticles promoted clotting as marked by a decrease in prothrombin time and both the hemostatic nanoparticles and controls did not active complement, in a subset of the animals, hard thrombi were found in uninjured tissues in both the hemostatic and control nanoparticle groups. Using data science methods that allow one to work across heterogeneous data sets, we found that the presence of these thrombi correlated with changes in IL-6, INF-alpha, lymphocytes, and neutrophils. While these findings might suggest that this formulation would not be a safe one for translation for trauma, they provide guidance for developing screening tools to make nanoparticle formulations in the complex milieux of trauma as well as for therapeutic interventions more broadly. This is important as we look to translate intravenously administered nanoparticle formulations for therapies, particularly considering the vascular changes seen in a subset of patients following COVID-19. We need to understand adverse events like thrombi more completely and screen for these events early to make nanomaterials as safe and effective as possible.

Diabetes mellitus and diabetic nephropathy: a review of the literature on hemostatic changes in coagulation and thrombosis

Vascular complications lead to morbidity and mortality in patients with diabetes. Diabetic nephropathy (DN) is one of the main life-threatening problems for these patients, as it is the main cause of end-stage renal disease. This study aimed to measure the clinical effects of diabetes in patients with diabetes and in patients with diabetic nephropathy. Improved hypoglycemic control in patients with diabetes could impressively reduce platelet hyperreactivity, and oxidative stress alters the levels of many coagulation and thrombosis factors, resulting in an abnormal hemostasis and impaired levels of numerous serum markers. Most studies have revealed that coagulation factor levels are high in patients with diabetes and nephrodiabetes. Serum inflammatory factors, and coagulation and endothelial functions are good predictors of diabetic nephropathy. This literature review was conducted with access to scholarly databases and Google Scholar through Qassim University, and it analyzes studies from early 2010 until November 2020. Many studies have inferred that diabetes severely affects hemostasis and increases the risk of cardiovascular disease.

The Correlation Between Estimated Glucose Disposal Rate and Coagulation Indexes in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

PURPOSE

To study the correlation between estimated glucose disposition rate (eGDR) and coagulation parameters in type 2 diabetes patients (T2DM).

MATERIALS AND METHODS

A total of 948 patients suffering from T2DM were enrolled for this research. Various blood coagulation parameters including prothrombin time (PT), activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT), and fibrinogen (FIB) were assessed. Body mass index (BMI), hypertension, and the levels of glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) were used to calculate the patients' eGDRs. All patients were sorted into two groups: those with high eGDRs (eGDR≥7.5) and those with low eGDRs (eGDR<7.5). The patients were then separated into groups of men and women. The connection between eGDR and coagulation indexes was examined using Spearman correlation, Pearson correlation, and multiple linear regression analysis.

RESULTS

In comparison to the high-eGDR group, reduced PT and APTT levels with increased FIB levels were observed in the low-eGDR group (P =0.006, P <0.001, and P = 0.035, respectively). The eGDR showed a positive relation with APTT (r = 0.142, P < 0.001), a negative relation with FIB (r = -0.082, P = 0.012), and no correlation with PT (r =0.064, P =0.050) in the all patients. As well as, the eGDR demonstrated a positive relation with APTT (r = 0.173, P < 0.001), a negative relation with FIB (r = -0.093, P = 0.03), and no relation with PT (r = 0.045, P = 0.300) in the male subgroups. Additionally, this correlation persisted following the adjustment of other factors in multilinear regression analysis. However, the female subgroup demonstrated no correlation among eGDR and PT, APTT or FIB (r = 0.086, P = 0.083, r = 0.097, P = 0.05;r = -0.058, P = 0.240, respectively).

CONCLUSION

Our study is the first to prove that eGDR demonstrates a correlation with coagulation indexes in T2DM patients. And, this correlation is gender-specific.

The Prevalence of Coagulopathy and Associated Factors Among Adult Type II Diabetes Mellitus Patients Attending the University of Gondar Comprehensive Specialized Hospital, Northwest Ethiopia

INTRODUCTION

Diabetes mellitus is a heterogeneous disorder of metabolism which results hyperglycemic-related atherothrombotic complications. These complications are the leading cause of death in diabetes mellitus patients. Therefore, this study was aimed to determine the prevalence of coagulopathy and associated factors among adult type II diabetes mellitus patients attending at University of Gondar comprehensive specialized hospital.

METHODS

A facility-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 357 study participants. A questionnaire and a data collection sheet were used to collect the sociodemographic and clinical data, respectively. About 6mL of venous blood samples were collected for coagulation tests and complete blood count. For prolonged coagulation tests, a mixing test was performed. Data were entered into EpiInfo and exported to SPSS for statistical analysis. Then, descriptive statistics were done. A binary and multivariable logistic regression model was used to identify the associated factors. P-value <0.05 was considered as statistically significant.

RESULTS

In this study, 357 study participants were included. Of them, 52.1% (186) and 80.7% (288) were females and urban residences, respectively. The prevalence of coagulopathy was 26.6% (95% CI: 22.1, 31.5%). Out of this, 12.3% and 8.7% showed shortened PT and aPTT, respectively. In addition, the prevalence of prolonged PT and aPTT were 5.6% and 3.9%, respectively. From the prolonged PT and aPTT, the prevalence of factor deficiency was 95% and 92.8%, respectively. Being female (AOR = 2.06; 95% CI: 1.11-3.85%), abnormal BMI (AOR = 1.94; 95% CI: 1.08-3.50), and educational status of high school (AOR = 0.26; 95% CI: 0.10-0.83%) were significantly associated with hypercoagulation.

CONCLUSION

Coagulopathy is an important public health problem among type II diabetes mellitus patients. Being female and having abnormal BMI were associated with hypercoagulation. Therefore, regular monitoring of coagulation parameters is vital to reduce the consequence of coagulopathy.

Hemostatic state of children with type 1 diabetes

PURPOSE

Hyperglycemia is one of the factors responsible for the molecular alterations that modify hemostasis. The aim of this study was to determine the levels of circulating molecules that have a prothrombotic impact on the child and adolescent population with type 1 diabetes mellitus.

METHODS

There were 35 patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus (11.0±2.5 years of age and a median 3.7±2.0 years of the disease) with no vascular complications and 20 healthy controls with similar age, sex, and body mass index included in the study. The evaluated parameters were fibrinogen, plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI1), von Willebrand factor antigen, and standard coagulation tests (platelet count, prothrombin time, and activated partial thromboplastin time). Glycemic control was evaluated by hemoglobin A1c and fasting blood glucose tests, and the presence of retinopathy and nephropathy was ruled out. The data obtained were analyzed by IBM SPSS Statistics ver. 20.0 and expressed as mean±standard deviation. The Pearson correlation coefficient was applied to investigate correlations between variables.

RESULTS

Diabetic patients showed significantly higher levels of fibrinogen (308±66 mg/dL vs. 246±18 mg/dL, P=0.0001), PAI-1 (41.6±12 ng/mL vs. 11.7±1.0 ng/mL, P=0.0001), and von Willebrand factor antigen (284%±55% vs. 121%±19%, P=0.0001). However, standard coagulation tests did not show differences between the 2 groups. PAI-1 was correlated with glycemia, hemoglobin A1c, fibrinogen, and von Willebrand factor antigen.

CONCLUSION

Elevated levels of fibrinogen, PAI-1, and von Willebrand factor antigen were found in the pediatric and adolescent population with type 1 diabetes mellitus, which suggests a prothrombotic state.

Basic Coagulation Profiles and Platelet Parameters Among Adult Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes Patients at Dessie Referral Hospital, Northeast Ethiopia: Comparative Cross-Sectional Study

BACKGROUND

Diabetes is a heterogeneous group of metabolic disorders characterized by hyperglycemia. The disease is highly associated with micro-vascular and macro-vascular complications. Thus, the main aim of this study was to compare basic coagulation profiles and platelet parameters among type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM), type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), and healthy controls.

METHODS

A comparative cross-sectional study was conducted at Dessie Referral Hospital from February to April 2019. A total of 180 study participants consisting of (60 T1DM, 60 T2DM, and 60 healthy controls) were enrolled using a systematic random sampling technique. Basic coagulation profiles and platelet parameters were determined using the HUMACLOT JUNIOR coagulometer and DIRUI BF 6500 automated hematology analyzer respectively. Non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis test supplemented with Dunn-Bonferroni correction and Spearman rank-order correlation test were used to compare basic coagulation profiles and platelet parameters among the groups. The test result was expressed in median and interquartile range and presented in texts and tables. P-value < 0.05 was considered to be statistically significant.

RESULTS

Prothrombin time (PT) and international normalization ratio (INR) were significantly reduced in T2DM as compared to T1DM and healthy controls (p <0.05). Platelet distribution width (PDW) and mean platelet volume (MPV) were significantly increased in both T1DM and T2DM as compared to healthy controls (p <0.05). Moreover, PT and INR were negatively correlated with fasting blood glucose (FBG) among T1DM and PT, INR and activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT) were negatively correlated with FBG among T2DM.

CONCLUSION

Basic coagulation profiles and platelet parameters were significantly different between diabetes and controls where PT and INR in T2DM were significantly reduced as compared to T1DM and controls. However, PDW and MPV were significantly elevated in both T1DM and T2DM as compared to controls. Moreover, FBG was significantly negatively correlated with PT and INR among T1DM and FBG was significantly negatively correlated with PT, INR, and APTT among T2DM. Therefore, T2DM may be related to increased risk of thrombosis indicated by reduced PT and INR and high PDW and MPV than T1DM and controls. Basic coagulation profiles and platelet parameters should be regularly tested for early diagnosis and proper management of diabetes-related thrombosis.

Study of Prothrombotic Changes in Metabolic Syndrome

The metabolic syndrome is a complex disorder of various metabolic risk factors in a single individual having central obesity and commonly associated with diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. The aim of our study was to study the relationship between coagulation abnormalities and metabolic syndrome. We performed a prospective cross-sectional study in a tertiary care hospital. A total of fifty cases of metabolic syndrome and fifty age & sex matched controls were selected. These two groups were investigated for Prothrombin Time (PT), Activated Partial Thromboplastin Time (APTT), Fibrinogen levels, Plasminogen Activator Inhibitor 1(PAI1) levels and Factor VIII levels. In cases with metabolic syndrome, significantly increased levels of Fibrinogen, Factor VIII and Plasminogen Activator Inhibitor1 (PAI1) were observed. PT & APTT were shorter in cases with metabolic syndrome. The coagulation parameters studied, correlated significantly with the components of metabolic syndrome. Metabolic syndrome is a hypercoagulable state and further studies are required for further evaluation of the consequences of this hypercoagulable state. There is a need for clinical trials evaluating prophylactic anticoagulation for prevention of venous thrombosis in patients with metabolic syndrome.

Thrombin receptor PAR4 drives canonical NLRP3 inflammasome signaling in the heart

The deleterious effects of diabetes in the heart are increasingly attributed to inflammatory signaling through the NLRP3 (NOD, LRR and PYD domains-containing protein 3) inflammasome. Thrombin antagonists reduce cardiac remodeling and dysfunction in diabetic mice, in part by suppressing fibrin-driven inflammation. The role of cellular thrombin receptor subtypes in this context is not known. We sought to determine the causal involvement of protease-activated receptors (PAR) in inflammatory signaling of the diabetic heart. Mice with diet-induced diabetes showed increased abundance of pro-caspase-1 and pro-interleukin (IL)-1β in the left ventricle (LV), indicating transcriptional NLRP3 inflammasome priming, and augmented cleavage of active caspase-1 and IL-1β, pointing to canonical NLRP3 inflammasome activation. Caspase-11 activation, which mediates non-canonical NLRP3 inflammasome signaling, was not augmented. Formation of the plasma membrane pore-forming protein N-terminal gasdermin D (GDSMD), a prerequisite for IL-1β secretion, was also higher in diabetic vs. control mouse LV. NLRP3, ASC and IL-18 expression did not differ between the groups, nor did expression of PAR1 or PAR2. PAR3 was nearly undetectable. LV abundance of PAR4 by contrast increased with diabetes and correlated positively with active caspase-1. Genetic deletion of PAR4 in mice prevented the diet-induced cleavage of caspase-1, IL-1β and GDSMD. Right atrial appendages from patients with type 2 diabetes also showed higher levels of PAR4, but not of PAR1 or PAR2, than non-diabetic atrial tissue, along with increased abundance of cleaved caspase-1, IL-1β and GSDMD. Human cardiac fibroblasts maintained in high glucose conditions to mimic diabetes also upregulated PAR4 mRNA and protein, and increased PAR4-dependent IL-1β transcription and secretion in response to thrombin, while PAR1 and PAR2 expressions were unaltered. In conclusion, PAR4 drives caspase-1-dependent IL-1β production through the canonical NLRP3 inflammasome pathway in the diabetic heart, providing mechanistic insights into diabetes-associated cardiac thromboinflammation. The emerging PAR4-selective antagonists may provide a feasible approach to prevent cardiac inflammation in patients with diabetes.

Hemostatic Abnormality and Associated Factors in Diabetic Patients at Jimma University Specialized Hospital, Jimma, Southwest Ethiopia: A Comparative Cross-sectional Study

BACKGROUND

Diabetes mellitus is a group of heterogeneous disorders of multiple etiologies characterized by chronic hyperglycemia resulting from defects in insulin secretion and/or insulin action. Diabetes mellitus has been reported to disturb normal hemostasis by various mechanisms. However, data on hemostasis of diabetic patients in the study area are lacking. This study was aimed at determining hemostatic profile and associated factors of hemostatic abnormality in diabetic patients.

METHODS

A comparative cross-sectional study was conducted involving a total of 238 (119 diabetic and 119 apparently healthy) individuals who came to the chronic care clinic, Jimma University Specialized Hospital. Socio-demographic and clinical data were collected through a structured questionnaire. A blood sample of 10ml was collected in EDTA (4ml), citrate (3ml) and chemistry (3ml) tubes to do platelet count, coagulation tests, and glucose and lipid profile analysis, respectively. Descriptive statistics as well as the median (25th, 75th) percentile and Mann Whitney U test were used during data analysis.

RESULTS

The overall hemostatic abnormality in diabetes individuals was 58.8%. The median (25th, 75th percentile) prothrombin time for diabetic and non-diabetic subjects was (12.8, 15.6) vs. (12.8, 14.2), respectively, and the difference was not statistically significant (p>0.05). The median (25th, 75th percentile) activated partial thromboplastin time was significantly different between the two groups (p<0.0001); (24, 36.8) vs. (36, 39.6). The median (25th, 75th percentile) fibrinogen level was significantly different between the two groups (p<0.0001); (277, 462) vs. (243, 328). The median (25th, 75th percentile) platelet count was also significantly different between the two groups (p<0.0001); (146,248) vs. (190,319). All variables were not significantly associated with hemostatic abnormality in multivariate regression analysis.

CONCLUSION

An overall hemostatic abnormality in diabetic patients was found to be high. The APTT and platelet count were lower in diabetic patients whilst the fibrinogen level was higher. Routine coagulation tests should be part of tests among diabetic patients. Advanced coagulation tests should also be considered to identify specific markers so as to pinpoint the particular problem.

Association of coagulation profile with microvascular complications and glycemic control in type 2 diabetes mellitus - a study at a tertiary care center in Delhi

Introduction

Type 2 diabetes mellitus, characterized by insulin resistance, corresponds to approximately 90% of cases of diabetes worldwide. Hyperglycemia in diabetes contributes to hyperfibrinogenemia and activates the coagulation cascade thereby producing atherothrombotic events.

Objectives

This study was designed to evaluate the coagulation profile (activated partial thromboplastin time, prothrombin time and fibrinogen) in Type 2 diabetes and to analyze correlations between body mass index, fasting blood glucose, glycated hemoglobin and duration of diabetes with coagulation parameters.

Methods

This study included 60 type 2 diabetics and 30 controls. Diabetic patients were grouped in two sets based on the presence or absence of microvascular complications. The demographic profile and clinical details were recorded. Fasting blood glucose, glycated hemoglobin, coagulation parameters such as prothrombin time, activated partial thromboplastin time and fibrinogen along with other biochemical parameters were investigated.

Results

There were statistically significant differences in the coagulation parameters between the two groups of diabetics (with and without complications). The present study also found significant correlations between age and the duration of diabetes with and without complications and coagulation parameters such as the activated partial thromboplastin time, which was found to be significantly lower, and fibrinogen, which was found to be significantly higher in subjects with complications compared to subjects without complications.

Conclusion

Clinical tests for prothrombin time, activated partial thromboplastin time and fibrinogen are relatively inexpensive and readily available. The present study shows that shortened prothrombin time, activated partial thromboplastin time and increased fibrinogen levels might be useful hemostatic markers in diabetic patients, especially in those at high-risk for thrombotic complications.

Cardiovascular Risk Factors in Patients with Poorly Controlled Diabetes Mellitus

Introduction

Diabetes mellitus(DM) is considered an independent cardiovascular risk factor. Having in mind concomitant occurence of diabetes and other cardiovascular risk factors, it is expected that patients with poor glucoregulation will have more cardiovascular risk factors and higher cardiovascular risk than patients with good glucoregulation.

Aim

To compare cardiovascular risk and cardiovascular risk factors between patients with poorly controlled and patients with well-controlled Diabetes mellitus.

Material and Methods

Hundered ten patients aged 40-70 years suffering from Diabetes mellitus type 2 were included. Research is designed as a retrospective, descriptive study. Patients with glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) > 7% were considered to have poorly controlled diabetes. The following data and parameters were monitored: age,sex, family history, data on smoking and alcohol consumption, BMI (body mass index), blood pressure, blood glucose, total cholesterol, triglycerides, LDL, HDL, fibrinogen, uric acid. For the assessment of cardiovascular risk, the WHO / ISH (World Health Organization/International Society of hypertension) tables of the 10-year risk were used, and due to the assessment of the risk factors prevalence, the optimal values of individual numerical variables were defined.

Results

Differences in the mean values of systolic, diastolic blood pressure, fasting glucose, total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol are statistically significant higher in patients with poorly controlled diabetes. Hypertension more frequently occurre in patients with poorly controlled DM. The majority of patients with well-controlled DM belong to the group of low and medium cardiovascular risk, while the majority of patients with poorly controlled DM belong to the group of high and very high cardiovascular risk. In our research, there was a significant difference in cardiovascular risk in relation to the degree of DM regulation, and HbA1c proved to be an important indicator for the emergence of the CVD.

Conclusion

There are significant differences in certain risk factors between patients with poorly controlled and well controlled DM. Patients with poorly controlled diabetes mellitus have a higher cardiovascular risk than patients with well controlled diabetes. The value of HbA1c should be considered when assessing cardiovascular risk.

Diabetes mellitus: A review of some of the prognostic markers of response to treatment and management

Background: The WHO defined ‘diabetes mellitus’ (DM) as a metabolic disorder characterised by chronic hyperglycaemia with disturbances of carbohydrate, fat and protein metabolism resulting from the defect in insulin secretion, or inaction, or both. When not identified early and controlled, acute and chronic life-threatening consequences may result. Identifying DM early for treatment and management, as well as clinically monitoring recovery and improvement during treatment, involves the assessments of biomarkers. The types, choice, sensitivity and descriptive information trends of these biomarkers are very important. Aim: Some prognostic biomarkers and parameters that this review identified include glycated haemoglobin, white blood cells, mean neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio, total leukocytes and neutrophils, plasma low-density lipoprotein, high-density lipoprotein and very low-density lipoprotein, platelet, fibrinogen, D-dimer and C-reactive proteins. Results: These parameters display increases in DM, while red blood cell, haemoglobin concentration, activated partial thromboplastin time, prothrombin time and partial thromboplastin time are decreased. Conclusion: With sound knowledge of the variations of these markers and parameters, observed reversal during treatment and management of DM and its complications can be better monitored, and guided decisions can be made.

Diabetes classification model based on boosting algorithms

BACKGROUND

Diabetes mellitus is a common and complicated chronic lifelong disease. Hence, it is of high clinical significance to find the most relevant clinical indexes and to perform efficient computer-aided pre-diagnoses and diagnoses.

RESULTS

Non-parametric statistical testing is performed on hundreds of medical measurement index results between diabetic and non-diabetic populations. Two common boosting algorithms, Adaboost.M1 and LogitBoost, are selected to establish a machine model for diabetes diagnosis based on these clinical test data, involving a total of 35,669 individuals. The machine classification models built by these two algorithms have very good classification ability. Here, the LogitBoost classification model is slightly better than the Adaboost.M1 classification model. The overall accuracy of the LogitBoost classification model reached 95.30% when using 10-fold cross validation. The true positive, true negative, false positive, and false negative rates of the binary classification model were 0.921, 0.969, 0.031, and 0.079, respectively, and the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve reached 0.99.

CONCLUSIONS

The boosting algorithms show excellent performance for the diabetes classification models based on clinical medical data. The coefficient matrix of the original data is a sparse matrix, because some of the test results were missing, including some that were directly related to disease diagnosis. Therefore, the model is robust and has a degree of pre-diagnosis function. In the process of selecting the preferred test items, the most statistically significant discriminating factors between the diabetic and general populations were obtained and can be used as reference risk factors for diabetes mellitus.

Clinical Significance of Hemostatic Parameters in the Prediction for Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus and Diabetic Nephropathy

It would be important to predict type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and diabetic nephropathy (DN). This study was aimed at evaluating the predicting significance of hemostatic parameters for T2DM and DN. Plasma coagulation and hematologic parameters before treatment were measured in 297 T2DM patients. The risk factors and their predicting power were evaluated. T2DM patients without complications exhibited significantly different activated partial thromboplastin time (aPTT), platelet (PLT), and D-dimer (D-D) levels compared with controls (P < 0.01). Fibrinogen (FIB), PLT, and D-D increased in DN patients compared with those without complications (P < 0.001). Both aPTT and PLT were the independent risk factors for T2DM (OR: 1.320 and 1.211, P < 0.01, resp.), and FIB and PLT were the independent risk factors for DN (OR: 1.611 and 1.194, P < 0.01, resp.). The area under ROC curve (AUC) of aPTT and PLT was 0.592 and 0.647, respectively, with low sensitivity in predicting T2DM. AUC of FIB was 0.874 with high sensitivity (85%) and specificity (76%) for DN, and that of PLT was 0.564, with sensitivity (60%) and specificity (89%) based on the cutoff values of 3.15 g/L and 245 × 10⁹/L, respectively. This study suggests that hemostatic parameters have a low predicting value for T2DM, whereas fibrinogen is a powerful predictor for DN.

The effect of hyperglycaemia on haemostasis testing--a volunteer study

We investigated whether the contamination of samples with glucose subsequently tested for haemostasis affected the results, including prothrombin time, activated partial thromboplastin time and fibrinogen concentration. Venous blood was collected from 12 healthy subjects and divided into four aliquots, which were subjected to different degrees of contamination with standard glucose solution (0%, 5%, 10%, 20%). With increasing glucose contamination, prothrombin time increased from mean (SD) 11.0 (0.7) s to 11.2 (0.7) s, 11.5 (0.7) s and 12.2 (0.8) s, all p < 0.001. Activated partial thromboplastin time decreased from 32.3 (0.9) s to 30.9 (0.8) s, 30.8 (0.8) s, and 29.7 (0.7) s, all p < 0.001. Fibrinogen concentration decreased from 3.8 (0.7) g.l(-1) to 3.7 (0.6) g.l(-1), 3.6 (0.6) g.l(-1), and 3.4 (0.6) g.l(-1), all p < 0.001. Bias was clinically meaningful from 5% contamination for activated partial thromboplastin time, 10% contamination for prothrombin time and 20% contamination for fibrinogen concentration. We conclude that if glucose contamination of haemostasis samples is suspected or has occurred, the specimens should not be analysed.

The impact of plasma Epstein-Barr virus DNA and fibrinogen on nasopharyngeal carcinoma prognosis: an observational study

BACKGROUND

The impact of combining plasma fibrinogen levels with Epstein-Barr Virus DNA (EBV DNA) levels on the prognosis for patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) was evaluated.

METHODS

In this observational study, 2563 patients with non-metastatic NPC were evaluated for the effects of circulating plasma fibrinogen and EBV DNA levels on disease-free survival (DFS), distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS), and overall survival (OS).

RESULTS

Compared with the bottom biomarker tertiles, TNM stage-adjusted hazard ratios (HR, 95% confidence intervals (CIs)) for predicting DFS in fibrinogen tertiles 2 to 3 were 1.26 (1.00 to 1.60) and 1.81 (1.45 to 2.26), respectively; HR for EBV DNA tertiles 2 to 3 were 1.49 (1.12 to 1.98) and 4.24 (3.27 to 5.49), respectively. After additional adjustment for established risk factors, both biomarkers were still associated (P for trend <0.001) with reduced DFS (HR: 1.79, 95% CI, 1.43 to 2.25 for top fibrinogen tertiles; HR: 4.04, 95% CI: 3.10 to 5.27 for top EBV DNA tertiles compared with the bottom tertiles). For patients with advanced-stage disease, those with high fibrinogen levels (3.34 g l(-1)) presented with worse DFS, regardless of EBV DNA 4000 or <4000 copies ml(-1) subgroup. Similar findings were observed for DMFS and OS.

CONCLUSIONS

Circulating fibrinogen and EBV DNA significantly correlate with NPC patients survival. Combined fibrinogen and EBV DNA data lead to improved prognostic prediction in advanced-stage disease.

Role of serum fibrinogen levels in patients with rotator cuff tears

Although rotator cuff (RC) tendinopathy is a frequent pathology of the shoulder, the real understanding of its aetiopathogenesis is still unclear. Several studies showed that RC tendinopathy is more frequent in patients with hyperglycemia, diabetes, obesity, or metabolic syndrome. This paper aims to evaluate the serum concentration of fibrinogen in patients with RC tears. Metabolic disorders have been related to high concentration of serum fibrinogen and the activity of fibrinogen has been proven to be crucial in the development of microvascular damage. Thus, it may produce progression of RC degeneration by reducing the vascular supply of tendons. We report the results of a cross-sectional frequency-matched case-control study comparing the serum concentration of fibrinogen of patients with RC tears with that of a control group of patients without history of RC tears who underwent arthroscopic meniscectomy. We choose to enrol in the control group patients with pathology of the lower limb with a likely mechanic, not metabolic, cause, different from tendon pathology. We found no statistically significant differences in serum concentration of fibrinogen when comparing patients with RC tears and patients who underwent arthroscopic meniscectomy (P = 0.5). Further studies are necessary to clarify the role of fibrinogen in RC disease.