Clotting Factors and Fibrinogen Split Products in the Extravascular Space

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Abstract
Factors I, II, V, VII-complex, X, fibrinogen-split products and fibrinolysis were assayed in 42 transsudates, 69 exsudates and simultaneously in the blood of the respective patients. The vitamin K dependent factors II, VII-complex and X were present in all extravascular specimens; factors V and clottable fibrinogen only in the majority of exsudates and the minority of transsudates. Fibrinogen-split products were found in most specimens even though the simultaneously tested serum of the respective patients was free of them. The collected quantitative data indicate that all clotting factors enter the extravascular space in direct proportion to their concentration in plasma and to the protein content of the extravascular fluid. Local extravascular lysis accounts for the low values of clottable fibrinogen and factor V and for the presence of fibrinogen split products. It is possible that the physiologic catabolism of these factors is mainly extravascular.