Fibrinogen metabolism in cyanoti congenital heart disease.

The metabolism and in vivo kinetics of fibrinogen labelled with radioactive iodine was studied in children with cyanotic congenital heart disease. The patients had a significantly lowered plasma fibrinogen pool, shortened fibrinogen half-life and increased fractional catabolic rate of fibrinogen compared with healthy children. The average plasma fibrinogen and absolute catabolic rate of fibrinogen did not differ from control values. The shortened fibrinogen half-life together with the correcting effect of anticoagulation with heparin indicated that fibrinogen was consumed by chronic disseminated intravascular coagulation. Inhibition of the fibrinolytic system with epsilon-aminocaproic acid in three cyanotic patients had no influence on the fibrinogen half-life in two of them but resulted in its prolongation in one patient.