SCREENING OF DYSFIBRINOGENEMIA USING THE FIBRINOGEN FUNCTION VERSUS ANTIGEN CONCENTRATION RATIO

The diagnosis of inherited and acquired dysfibrinogenaemia is usually suspected in patients with otherwise unexplained prolonged thrombin ti me or other tests with thrombin-like enzymes (1). Confirmation of the diagnosis requires discordant results from the investigation of functi onal fibrinogen and its antigen concentration. However, the issue of t he difference between the two results required to confirm dysfibrinoge naemia has rarely been addressed. A difference of at least 0.5 g/l bet ween functional fibrinogen using the method of Clauss and heat precipi tation method according to schulz has been suggested as a prerequisite (1). In the case of acquired dysfibrinogenaemia with an underlying li ver disease the discordance should reach at least 1.0 g/l (2). Rodgers and Garr (3) suggested to establish a ratio between fibrinogen functi on and antigen concentration. In that study plasma from healthy blood donors was investigated using the Clauss method and radial immunodiffu sion. We applied this approach to randomly selected patients at the ti me of admission to a University Hospital Department. Since fibrinogen is one of the major acute phase proteins, the determination of the C-r eactive protein (GRP) was included for comparison.