[Advancement in the diagnosis of disseminated intravascular coagulation for the surgeon]

A brief explanation of the molecular markers of coagulation, fibrinolysis and endothelial cell activation was done. The clinical significance of markers, such as, soluble fibrin monomer complex, FDP D-dimer, prothrombin fragment 1 + 2, thrombin-antithrombin III complex, plasmin-alpha 2 plasmin inhibitor complex and plasma thrombomodulin in our patients with disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) due to abdominal sepsis and malignancy is discussed. The coagulopathy in the DIC patients due to abdominal sepsis had a different aspect from that in the DIC patients due to malignancy. Activation of the coagulation and fibrinolytic systems in sepsis was milder than that in malignancy, despite the decrease of antithrombin III activity in the patients with sepsis. In the patients with sepsis, granulocyte elastase was increased. It was proposed that the coagulopathy was caused not only thrombin formation but also by granulocyte proteinase. It could be expected that the pathophysiology of disseminated intravascular coagulation should be clarified, because of the high sensitivity.