Plasma fibrinogen levels and their correlates in 6457 coronary heart disease patients. The Bezafibrate Infarction Prevention (BIP) Study.

The association between fibrinogen measured in healthy individuals and subsequent development of ischemic heart disease is well established, but studies reporting fibrinogen levels in coronary heart disease patients are scarce. Plasma fibrinogen was determined for 5729 men and 728 women (aged 45 to 74) with established coronary heart disease, screened for participation in the Bezafibrate Infarction Prevention study, with the following lipid profile at the time of the first screening visit: total serum cholesterol < or = 270 mg/dl, high density lipoprotein cholesterol < or = 45 mg/dl and triglyceride < or = 300 mg/dl. Increased age was associated with augmented plasma fibrinogen values. Age-adjusted fibrinogen levels were higher in women than in men. A direct association was found between mean fibrinogen levels and low density lipoprotein cholesterol. On the other hand, the correlation with high density lipoprotein cholesterol was inverse. Fibrinogen was also associated with body mass index, behavioral variables and severity of coronary heart disease. In a multivariable linear regression analysis performed, risk factors considered explained merely 6 and 4% of fibrinogen variation for men and women, respectively. Therefore, most of the fibrinogen level variability in coronary heart disease patients is accounted for by factors that remain to be established by further research.