[A long-term hemodialysis patient with spontaneous deep vein thrombosis, showing high levels of coagulo-fibrinolytic markers].

A 70-year-old woman on maintenance hemodialysis for 3 years was admitted to our hospital because of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) in the right femoral vein. Seven days before admission, she suddenly noticed severe pain in her right inguinal region while she was walking on the street. A wide range of stenosis from the iliac to the distal femoral region was detected by both CT scanning and venography. Her hematocrit reading was 30% and her serum erythropoietin level was 10.5 MU/ml, which was within the normal range, on the day of admission. The results of routine coagulation tests, including prothrombin time, activated partial thrombin time and plasma fibrinogen values, were normal. Plasma anti-thrombin III and plasminogen were also normal. In contrast, beta-thromboglobulin, platelet factor IV, fibrinogen degradation product, D-dimer, thrombin-antithrombin III complex (TAT) and fibrinopeptide A were abnormally elevated. In the venous occlusion test which was performed in the forearm of the opposite side of the arterio-venous shunt, plasma tissue type plas-minogen activator values showed little response to occlusion indicating that the vessel endothelium may have been partially damaged. These data suggest that the DVT had been induced by imbalance of increased blood coagulation and decreased fibrinolytic activity. Damaged vascular wall may also have contributed to the production of DVT. Furthermore, it is surprising that the patient had elevated values of D-dimer and TAT for many years without recurrence of the DVT. Spontaneous DVT in an apparently healthy individual on maintenance hemodialysis seems to be rare, compared with arterial thrombosis.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)