Laboratory methods for detecting disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC): new aspects.

The objective was to diagnose a hypercoagulative state or "pre-DIC" with new laboratory tests. APACHE II score was used as a measure of primary illness. Ventilator time was used as a reflexion of secondary complications. Twenty-three ICU patients were divided into two groups depending on time on the ventilator: Group 1 > 7 days and Group II < or = 7 days. If, after admittance patients deteriorated or complications occurred, new quantitative coagulation tests were done: soluble fibrin, prothrombin fragment 1 + 2, thrombin-antithrombin complex, D-dimer and elastase. We found a positive correlation between SF levels, the APACHE II score and the ventilator time. Diagnostic efficacy for SF was 87%, sensitivity 91%, specificity 83%, the predictive value of a positive result was 87% and the predictive value of a negative result 91%. The levels of the other new tests were also generally higher in the clinically worse group, although not significantly. Prothrombin complex, APTT, platelet count and AT III were pathologic to the same extent in both groups. The patients who developed most secondary complications, resulting in longer ventilator treatment (Group I), were also hypercoagulative. Soluble fibrin, in particular, seems to be valuable in the diagnosis of "pre-DIC" and possibly of predictive value for organ system complications.