Usefulness of D-Dimers and fibrinogen plasma determination in patients with polyvascular disease.

OBJECTIVES: The goal of our study was to evaluate the value of fibrinogen, D-Dimers and antithrombin III plasma levels to prognosticate mortality in patients suffering from both peripheral artery disease (PAD) and coronary artery disease (CAD). MATERIAL AND METHODS: 90 patients with coexistent PAD and CAD were inrolled in 36 months study and evaluated for the following parameters: age, sex, current smoking, ankle-brachial index, claudicating distance, ejection fraction, triglycerides, cholesterol, LDL, fibrinogen, D-Dimers, antithrombin III, creatinin, glycaemia, histories of myocardial infarction, stroke, diabetes and previous revascularization, as well as number of other concurrent diseases. We developed linear regression model for identification of variables, associated with cardiovascular events, and multivariate regression model to define the predictors of mortality. RESULTS: We registered 126 cardiovascular events during three years follow-up. Number of cardiovascular events correlate with fibrinogen (r=0,59, p<0,01) and with D-Dimers (r=0,48, p<0,01). Mortality of 8,89% was found for the period of three years in patients with coexistent PAD and CAD. The variables independently associated with mortality found by mutlivariate analysis were fibrinogen (r= 0,21, p<0,02, score 2,78), D-Dimers (r=0,94, p<0,01, score 17,24) and ankle-brachial index (r=0,40, p<0,03, score 4,84). CONCLUSION: The reported data demonstrated fibrinogen and D-Dimers as independent predictors of mortality in pts with polyvascular disease.