• R Scherer, D Paar, L Stöcker, and W J Kox.
• Institut für Anästhesiologie, Universitätsklinikum der GHS Essen.
• Anaesthesist. 1994 Jun 1; 43 (6): 347-54.

AbstractConsumptive coagulation disorders are frequently observed in critically ill patients secondary to other underlying diseases. Initial hypercoagulability leads to subsequent hypocoagulability due to consumption of procoagulant proteins, inhibitors, and platelets. This process evolves in three distinct phases: an initial increase in coagulation activity is characterised by the activation of coagulation factors and platelets without any clinical symptoms of a haemorrhagic diathesis. The ongoing process of activation and accelerated consumption of coagulation factors and inhibitors causes a critical reduction in the haemostatic potential. The time of onset of the clinical symptoms of bleeding depends on the patient's underlying disease and its pharmacological management. Coagulation processes that are restricted locally under normal conditions become disseminated when the inhibitory potential--mainly represented by antithrombin III (AT III)--is exhausted. Therefore, thrombin formation occurs, especially in the microcirculation, where fibrin clot deposition begins to cause inhomogeneities of blood flow and thus to reduce oxygen delivery to the tissues. Hypocoagulability, reactive hyperfibrinolysis, and diffuse bleeding lead to an irreversible systemic breakdown of haemostatic mechanisms (disseminated intravascular coagulation, DIC). The laboratory diagnosis of accelerated consumption is based on the course of global coagulation tests (e.g., prothrombin time, activated partial thromboplastin time, platelet count) and more sensitive ("dynamic") activation parameters such as prothrombin fragment F1 + 2, thrombin-AT III complex, fibrin monomers, or d-dimer. Measurements of plasminogen, tissue plasminogen activator, plasminogen activator inhibitor 1, and alpha 2-antiplasmin-plasmin complex provide information on fibrinolytic turnover.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

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