Are elevated plasma fibrinogen associated with lung function? An 8-year follow-up of the ELSA study

Fibrinogen is an important biomarker of inflammation, but findings from longitudinal studies that correlated fibrinogen with lung function in older adults are inconsistent.

To investigate the relationship between fibrinogen plasma levels and lung function impairment later in life.

Longitudinal analysis of 2,150 participants of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) aged 50 years and older. Associations between changes in plasma fibrinogen between waves 2 (2004-05) and 4 (2008-09) and lung function in wave 6 (2012-13) were performed using multiple linear regression adjusted by potential confounders.

Regarding the fibrinogen profile, 18.5% of the participants presented higher levels in both waves. In the adjusted models, the maintenance of high fibrinogen levels was associated with a significant reduction of lung function only for men. FEV1 showed a reduction of 0.17L, FVC of 0.22L, and the percentages predicted were 5.16% for FEV1 and 6.21% for FVC compared to those that maintained normal levels of fibrinogen.

To the best of our knowledge, this was the first study investigating the relationship between changes in fibrinogen levels over a long follow-up period and lung function in older adults without pre-existing chronic diseases. ELSA has information on critical demographic and clinical parameters, which allowed to adjust for potential confounding factors.

It was found that the persistence of high levels of plasma fibrinogen in older English men, but not women, is associated with lung function decline. Therefore, plasma fibrinogen showed to be an important biomarker of pulmonary dysfunction in this population.