Plasma Fibrinogen in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease – A Cross Sectional Study Conducted in a Tertiary Care Hospital in Puducherry, India

Background: Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is a systemic disorder rather than a respiratory disease. A significant complication that COPD can lead to a hypercoagulable state, which can lead to life-threatening diseases like Ischemic heart disease, deep vein thrombosis and Pulmonary embolism. Therefore, Fibrinogen is a useful biomarker to predict the risk of such hyper-coagulable state in COPD patients.

Objectives: The study was aimed to measure the fibrinogen levels in COPD patients, to correlate the fibrinogen levels with severity of airway obstruction based on spirometry and also to compare the fibrinogen levels in COPD exacerbation patients with stable COPD individuals and healthy non-smokers.

Methods: Spirometric measurement and measurement of Plasma Fibrinogen was performed on 60 patients (20 COPD patients with exacerbation; 20 stable COPD patients and 20 healthy non-smokers).

Results: Raised plasma fibrinogen levels were observed in COPD patients when compared to healthy non-smokers. There was increase in the fibrinogen levels with severity of air obstruction. Among the COPD patients, raised fibrinogen levels were observed in exacerbation individuals when compared to stable COPD individuals.

Conclusion: Plasma fibrinogen is a useful biomarker to monitor the disease severity in addition to the spirometric parameters in COPD patients. It gives a clue to the possibility of developing systemic complication of a hypercoagulable in COPD patients.