Plasma Fibrinogen as a Biomarker for Mortality and Hospitalized Exacerbations in People with COPD

Abstract

Abstract Background Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), predominantly prevalent in smokers, is a chronic inflammatory disorder of the airway and lungs. COPD is one of the most prevalent diseases and the third leading cause of death globally. COPD is a common, preventable, treatable disease that characterize by persistent chest symptoms and airflow limitation due to air way or, and alveolar abnormalities. Fibrinogen is a soluble protein that is produced in the liver and released into the bloodstream, with normal ranges of 200-400 mg/dL or 2-4 g/L. COPD and fibrinogen are associated with frequency of hospitalizatied exacerbations of COPD, and related to the severity of the disease and mortality. Objective To explore whether the fibrinogen level affects the mortality and hospitalized excerbations in COPD patients. Methods The present study was conducted upon 50 subjects during the period from August 2022 to January 2023 who were admitted to our chest department at Ain Sham University Hospitals. Results We made our study on 50 smoker patients, spirometric assessment for all patients was done to confirm COPD diagnosis. The mean age was 59.0± 8.83 years. There were 47 (94%) males and 3 (6%) females with male to female ratio was 16.7:1. Fibrinogen test was done during exacerbation with mean fibrinogen level was 3.64± 1.01 g/L. According to cutoff of fibrinogen level, most of excerbated patients had high fibrinogen level (>3.2). The mean FEV1 was 41.06± 18.75 there was a significant negative correlation between fibrinogen level and FEV1 shows that high fibrinogen level was significantly higher in cases with severe and very severe conditions. Most cases (94%) were discharged while three cases (6%) died shows that there was no significant relation between fibrinogen level and mortality. Conclusion Aecopd associated with high fibrinogen level and that the plasma fibrinogen level was increased with decreasing value of FEV1 showing significant negative correlation between plasma fibrinogen level and FEV1% predicated value. this suggests that high plasma fibrinogen level could be a diagnosis of severity of copd and a poor prognostic factor. but no significant relation between fibrinogen level and mortality. the results of the present study, combined with the fact that plasma fibrinogen is a widely and rapidly available, easy to interpret, low-cost biomarker, suggest a possible role for plasma fibrinogen in the identification of copd patients at an increased risk of adverse outcomes.