Characterization of the blood coagulation system in morbidly obese patients

Abstract

Obesity is a complex metabolic disorder that can be followed by blood coagulation disorders, athero­sclerosis and atherothrombosis. In the present work, the levels of fibrinogen, soluble fibrin, D-dimer as well as protein C were measured in the blood plasma of 24 morbidly obese patients (the body mass index exceeds 40 kg/m2) to evaluate the risk of prothrombotic state. The study showed that near by 80% of patients had substantially increased fibrinogen concentration, 33% had increased concentration of soluble fibrin, 42% had increased level of D-dimer in blood plasma as compared to control. According to the results of individual analysis, the high level of fibrinogen and soluble fibrin while reduced protein C indicated the threat of thrombosis, which requires complex diagnostics to be identified. Therefore, simultaneous quantification of hemostatic system biomarkers in the blood plasma is the confident way to predict the risk of thrombotic complications in morbidly obese patients. Keywords: D-dimer, hemostasis, obesity, protein C, soluble fibrin, thrombosis