Haemostatic balance in patients with acute focal cerebral vasculopathy

The authors investigated the behaviour of some markers of the haemostatic balance in a group of patients with acute focal cerebral vasculopathy. The series consists of 70 female patients (mean age: 61 +/- 5), 25 of whom suffering from TIA and 45 from thrombotic stroke; 40 normal controls (mean age 43 +/- 5) were also considered. For each patient after an overnight fasting a withdrawal of venous blood was done within 24-36 hours after the admission. For each sample the determination of seven prothrombotic markers [(fibrinogen (F), factor VII (F VII), antithrombin III (AT III), protein C (PC), protein S (PS) (coagulometric method IL), tissue plasminogen activator (t-PA), plasminogen activator inhibitor (PAI-1) (ELISA method Boehringer)] and of three prethrombotic markers [(fibrinopeptide A (FPA), beta-thromboglobulin (BTG) and D-dimer (D-D) (ELISA method, Boehringer)] was performed. The results obtained in the group of the cerebrovasculopathic patients compared to the controls showed a significant increase of F (p < 0.001), F VII (p < 0.005), BTG (p < 0.05) and D-D (p < 0.01), whereas significant differences regarding AT III, PC, PS, t-PA, PAI and FPA were not observed. The authors hypothesized that the increased levels of fibrinogen and factor VII in the cerebrovascular subjects, globally considered, may depend on a marked prothrombotic state, linked in a pathogenetic sense to the vascular disease; the existence of a prethrombotic state is also documented by the increase of betathromboglobulin and D-dimer.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)