FIBRONECTIN CONCENTRATION IS DECREASED IN PLASMA OF SEVERELY ILL PATIENTS WITH DISSEMINATED INTRA-VASCULAR COAGULATION

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  • 1 January 1978
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 91  (5) , 729-735
Abstract
Plasma fibronectin (cold-insoluble globulin) is cross-linked to fibrin during the final stage of blood coagulation and is probably the major nonspecific opsonin of blood. The concentration of plasma fibronectin was measured in 36 hospitalized patients (11 with malignancy, 12 with infection, 13 with other underlying diseases) with evidence of fibrin deposition and lysis. Plasma fibronectin concentration was greater than 2 SD below the mean of normals in 17 of the patients (P < 0.001). Depression of fibronectin was not related to severity of disseminated intravascular coagulation, as assessed by fibrinogen concentration and the quantity of FDP [fibrin/fibrinogen degradation products] in serum. Depressed plasma fibronectin concentration was an unfavorable prognostic finding, inasmuch as 12 of the 17 patients with depressed fibronectin concentrations died during hospitalization as compared to 5 of the 19 patients with normal fibronectin concentrations (P < 0.02). Specific depletion of plasma fibronectin, because of codeposition with fibrin or due to increased utilization as a nonspecific opsonin, may contribute to the organ failure seen in severely ill patients.

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