Disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) and pre-DIC due to severe infection in the elderly

Abstract

Because of pre-thrombotic state frequently present in the elderly, sepsis easily progresses to pre-DIC and DIC, sometimes with a fatal outcome. We assessed 31 elderly patients who developed pre-DIC and DIC due to severe infection. They were divided into two groups, early death group: 14 elderly patients with poor prognosis died within 14 days, and long survival group: 17 patients with good prognosis lived 15 days or more. Controls consisted of 31 elderly thrombotic disease cases and 25 healthy elderly cases. The DIC score was significantly higher in the early death group than in the long survival group, and there was a correlation between DIC score and survival. Moreover, many of the early death group were long-termed bed-ridden patients, serum BUN and Cre levels were significantly increased in the early death group compared to the long survival group. While plasma TAT, PIC and D-dimer levels were increased in thrombotic disease group compared to the healthy control group, TAT and D-dimer were also increased in the pre-DIC and DIC state than in the thrombotic state. In the early death group, D-dimer was higher than in the long survival group. We suggest that early diagnosis by molecular marker is important in the DIC stage, and a high D-dimer level may be a poor prognostic factor.