[Longitudinal studies on the prognostic significance of plasma fibrinogen in diabetes mellitus]. / Längsschnittuntersuchungen zur prognostischen Bedeutung des Plasmafibrinogens beim Diabetes mellitus.

ABSTRACT

In 243 diabetics of different duration of the disease the prognostic value of an initial estimation of plasma fibrinogen for life expectancy and development of macroangiopathy was controlled over a period of ten years. Diabetics with a cardiovascular cause of death showed at the beginning with 3.68 in contrast to 3.24 g/l weakly significantly higher fibrinogen values than the surviving patients. In analogy to this in the surviving patients the diabetics with a meanwhile appearing myocardial infarction, chronic ischaemic heart disease or manifest disturbances of the peripheral blood supply differed by higher fibrinogen concentrations from test persons without manifest macroangiopathy. There was a close correlation between plasma fibrinogen level and development of hypertension. The increase of plasma fibrinogen is apparently associated with the atherogenesis without rendering a secure prognosis in the individual case on account of a critical limiting value.