[Hemostatic disturbances in chronic myeloid leukemia]

Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is one of the chronic myeloproliferative disorders. Haemostatic disturbances and infections are the main causes of death in CML.

We investigated 22 patients with CML aged 38-55 years (median 45.0). Twenty nine healthy controls were sex and age-matched. Patients underwent following examination: whole blood count, blood smear, platelets count, prothrombin time (PT), activated partial thromboplastin time (aPTT), euglobulin lysis time (ELT), fibrin degradation products (FDP), thrombin-antithrombin complexes (TAT), plasmin-alpha2-antiplasmin complexes (PAP), antigen and urokinase plasminogen activators (t-PA:Ag, u-PA:Ag), antigen of tissue plasminogen activator inhibitors type 1 and 2 (PAI-1:Ag, PAI-2:Ag), fibrinogen concentrations, antitrombin (AT) and alpha2-antiplasmin (alpha2-AP) activity.

TAT concentration (35.46 ng/ml) was significantly higher in examined group than in controls (3.41 ng/ml). Significantly higher fibrinogen concentration (3.31 g/l) and elevated platelet count (611.0 G/1) was observed in patients with CML. We also showed significantly higher concentrations of u-PA:Ag (0.67 ng/ml), PAI-1:Ag (34.8 ng/ml), PAP complexes (473.10 ng/ml) and FDP (17.10 microg/ml) in patients with CML.

High TAT, fibrinogen concentrations and elevated platelet count in patients with CML are the evidences of an activation of coagulation. On the other hand fibrinolysis activation is proved by higher concentrations of u-PA:Ag, PAI-1:Ag, complexes PAP and FDP.