[Disseminated intravascular coagulation: clinical and biological diagnosis].

Disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) is a syndrome characterized by the systemic activation of blood coagulation. Its pathophysiological mechanisms are complex and dependent on the underlying pathology, making the clinical and biological expression of quite variable DIC. Among the various biological parameters disrupted, most are not specific, and none of them allows in itself to make the diagnosis. All this does not facilitate the task of the practitioner for diagnosis of overt DIC, much less that of the non-overt DIC, early stage whose treatment would improve the prognosis. These considerations have led to develop scores, combining several parameters depending on their availability in daily practice, as well as their diagnostic relevance. Of all the scores, the ISTH (International society of thrombosis and hemostasis) remains the most used.