ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Fibrinogen is an essential cofactor for blood coagulation. The fibrinogen level has been identified as a risk factor for coronary artery disease(CAD) and stroke, but the relationship between plasma fibrinogen levels and number of atherosclerotic vesssels has been less investigated. The aim of this study is assess the possible association between plasma fibrinogen levels and the number of coronary stenosis in patients with CAD undergoing coronary catheterization. We also investigated the usefulness of plasma fibrinogen to predict CAD in a case-control study of the middle-aged men and women. METHODS: We measured plasma fibrinogen, total cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol and triglyceride in 121 patients with CAD and in 109 healthy controls. Multivariate logistic regression models were performed to assess risk factors for CAD. RESULTS: Plasma fibrinogen levels were significantly elevated in CAD group vs control group, 413.9+/-119.4 vs 296.3+/-74.1 mg/dL(P<0.001), respectively. The levels of plasma fibrinogen were not different according to the number of coronary stenosis. Multivariate logistic regression analysis of fibrinogen level and risk factors revealed 3 independent predictors of CAD: fibrinogen, body mass index and diabetes mellitus. Those with fibrinogen levels of 331-420 mg/dL had a 6.36-fold increased risk than fibrinogen levels of less than 270 mg/dL, while fibrinogen levels higher than 420 mg/dL had 3.53-fold increased risk. CONCLUSIONS: These results provide the evidence that plasma fibrinogen is associated with an increased risk of CAD. However, the plasma fibrinogen was not correlated with the severity of coronary stenosis.