Fibrinogen, health status and hospitalization in patients with moderate to severe COPD

Background: There is evidence that COPD is a systemic illness. Serum biomarkers have been associated with clinically relevant variables. Aim: To investigate the relationships between the blood level of fibrinogen and large group of clinical and functional parameters. Patients and methods: Twenty-nine stable COPD patients (age [yr] = 63.4±8.6, FEV 1 % = 37±11%, BODE index = 3.7±1.8) were enrolled in the study. Pulmonary function tests, blood-gas measurements; echocardiography, brain natriuretic peptide (BNP); 6-minute walking test (6MWT) and cardiopulmonary exercise test (CPET) on a treadmill were performed. In addition, health status was evaluated by SGRQ (St George9s Respiratory Questionnaire) and CAT (COPD assessment test). The number of hospitalization, the need of antibiotic treatment and oral/intravenous corticosteroids (OICS) in the 12 months prior to evaluation were recorded. Results: The mean value of fibrinogen was 3.0±0.8 [g/L]. Fibrinogen correlated significantly with health status - SGRQ (r =-0.49, p = 0.008), CAT (r =-0.44, p = 0.016) and hospitalizations (r = -0.50, p = 0.006), and OICS application (r = - 0.48, p = 0.012). Differentiation of patients by value of fibrinogen (> 3 g/L ≤) discriminated them with respect to last year hospitalisations (1.8±1.9 vs 0.6±1.3; p 2 max–5.68*FIBR–15.83*KCO (r=0.918; r 2 =0.843, p 2 =0.632, p Conclusion: Blood level of fibrinogen was related to health status and hospitalization in patients with moderate to severe COPD.