AGE-DEPENDENT FIBRINOGEN CHANGES

Fibrinogen concentration rises in both sexes between the 20th and 75th year of life. In our study, this increase was 26 mg/dl and decade in persons feeling healthy and 25 mg/dl and decade after exclusion of those individuals with acute-phase-markers or risk factors. This age-dependent increase in fibrinogen concentration therefore occurred even in the absence of known diseases and risk factors. As possible reason, an increased synthesis is being discussed, which may be due to higher fibrin split products and interleukin-6 as well as occult diseases or unnoticed risk factors. Associated phenomena are rising plasma viscosity and platelet aggregation. Noticeable amounts of malfunctioning fibrinogen in the sense of >>error-proteins<< have not been discovered.