Prognostic importance of haemostatic parameters in polyarterial disease.

UNLABELLED The goal of our study was to evaluate the value of fibrinogen, D-dimers and antithrombin III plasma levels in prognosticating mortality in patients suffering from both peripheral arterial disease (PAD) and coronary artery disease (CAD). PATIENTS AND METHODS 90 patients with coexistent PAD and CAD were enrolled in a 36 months study, and evaluated for the following parameters: age, sex, current smoking, ankle-brachial index, claudicating distance, ejection fraction, triglycerides, cholesterol, LDL, fibrinogen, D-Dimers, antithrombin III, creatinine, glycaemia, histories of myocardial infarction, stroke, diabetes and previous revascularization, as well as a number of other concurrent diseases. We developed a linear regression model for identification of variables, associated with cardiovascular events, and a multivariate regression model to define the predictors of mortality. RESULTS We registered 126 cardiovascular events during three years' follow-up. The number of cardiovascular events correlated with fibrinogen (r=0.59, p=0.01) and with D-dimers (r=0.48, p=0.01). A mortality of 8.89% was found for the period of three years in patients with coexistent PAD and CAD. The variables independently associated with mortality found by mutlivariate analysis were fibrinogen (r=0.21, p 0.02, score=2.78), DD (r=0.94, p=0.01, score=17.24) and ankle-brachial index (r=0.40, p=0.03, score=4.84). CONCLUSIONS The reported data demonstrated fibrinogen and D-dimers as independent predictors of mortality in patients with polyarterial disease.