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Objective: High fibrinogen levels are associated with an increased risk of ischaemic stroke (IS). We used mendelian randomisation (MR) to explore a potential causal relationship., Materials and Methods: Data for assessing the relationship between gene variant, disease and biological levels needed for a MR approach was collected using a meta-analytical approach. Inverse-variance weighted (IVW) approach was used for the main analyses and alternative approach for sensitivity analyses. The relationship between fibrinogen levels and IS was assessed using Odds Ratio (OR), while mean difference (g/L) was used for the relationship between SNP (rs1800790) and fibrinogen levels., Results: The variant FGB rs1800790 SNP was interrogated as an instrumental variable of fibrinogen levels. A meta-analysis with 24 studies (12 case-control and 12 cohort studies, totalling 20,902 cases and 76,510 controls was conducted. Homozygotes (AG) of rs1800790 have 0.14g/L (95%CI: 0.08-0.19, P<0.001) and minor allele (AA) have 0.18g/L (95%CI: 0.01-0.35, P=0.037) higher levels of plasma fibrinogen concentration compared with homozygous for the major allele (GG). The risk of IS was significantly increased in 1-g/L (OR=1.83, 95%CI: 0.92-3.62, P=0.084), or 1-SD of fibrinogen levels (OR=1.39, 95%CI: 1.03-1.87, P=0.030), or above median levels (OR=1.22, 95%CI: 1.02-1.46, P=0.029) or categorical levels tertiles (OR=1.50, 95%CI: 1.26-1.79, P<0.001). Each 1-g/L increase in fibrinogen levels was causally associated with a higher risk of ischemic stroke (OR=2.28, 95%CI: 1.53-3.03, P<0.001) in the Mendelian randomisation analysis., Conclusions: Elevated fibrinogen levels are a causative risk factor for ischaemic stroke with each 1g/L increase doubling its risk., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest that could be perceived as prejudicing the impartiality of the research reported., (Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier Inc.)

Introduction: Abnormally invasive placenta (AIP) is often associated with high maternal morbidity. In surgical treatment, caesarean hysterectomy or partial uterine resection may lead to high perioperative maternal blood loss. A conservative treatment by leaving the placenta in utero after caesarean delivery of the baby is an option to preserve fertility and to reduce peripartum hysterectomy-related morbidity. Nevertheless, due to increased placental coagulation activity as well as consumption of clotting factors, a disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC)-like state with secondary late postpartum bleeding can occur., Purpose: Systematic review after the presentation of a case of conservative management of placenta percreta with secondary partial uterine wall resection due to vaginal bleeding, complicated by local hyperfibrinolysis and consecutive systemic decrease in fibrinogen levels., Methods: Systematic PubMed database search was done until August 2019 without any restriction of publication date or journal RESULTS: Among 58 publications, a total of 11 reported on DIC-like symptoms in the conservative management of AIP, in the median on day 59 postpartum. In most cases, emergency hysterectomy was performed, which led to an almost immediate normalization of coagulation status but was accompanied with high maternal blood loss. In two cases, fertility-preserving conservative management could be continued after successful medical therapy., Conclusion: Based on these results, we suggest routinely monitoring of the coagulation parameters next to signs of infection in the postpartum check-ups during conservative management of AIP. Postpartum tranexamic acid oral dosage should be discussed when fibrinogen levels are decreasing and D-Dimers are increasing.

Objective: Since IL-6 has been associated with activation of the coagulation cascade and upregulation of fibrinogen transcription, we retrospectively tested the hypothesis that patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) treated with tocilizumab (TCZ) may lose more blood when undergoing total knee arthroplasty (TKA)., Methods: This study included 115 RA patients who underwent primary TKA and were preoperatively tested for fibrinogen levels. The blood volume of each patient was calculated using the Nadler formula, and estimated blood loss after TKA was calculated as the change between pre-operative and post-operative hematocrits. If salvaged blood was reinfused, the volume was measured and added to the volume of the estimated blood loss., Results: We observed that patients treated with TCZ had significantly lower pre-operative fibrinogen levels than those not treated with TCZ (190.0 mg/dL versus 347.0 mg/dL, respectively; p = .00018). We also observed a statistically significant increase in mean total volume of estimated blood loss after TKA in RA patients who had been treated with TCZ compared with those not treated with TCZ (797.1 mL versus 511.4 mL, respectively; p = .0039)., Conclusion: TCZ treatment in patients with RA may increase the risk of blood loss after TKA because of decreased fibrinogen levels.

Introduction: Cirrhotic patients have been considered for decades to have a pro-haemorrhagic pattern and were treated as such based on the results from standard coagulation tests. The aim of our study was to determine the effects of platelet count and fibrinogen levels on rotational thromboelastometry (ROTEM) parameters., Methods: We prospectively included 176 patients with End-Stage Liver Disease (ESLD) admitted to our Intensive Care Unit prior to liver transplantation. Collected data consisted of severity scores, liver, renal and standard coagulation tests, fibrinogen levels, platelet counts and ROTEM parameters. Four ROTEM assays were performed (ExTEM, InTEM, ApTEM and FibTEM) and the following parameters included: CT - clotting time, CFT - clot formation time, MCF - maximum clot firmness, ML - maximum lysis, alpha angle, TPI - thrombin potential index, MaxV - maximum velocity of clot formation (MaxV), MaxVt - time to MaxV, MCE - maximum clot elasticity and AUC - area under the curve., Results: Statistical analysis demonstrated a linear correlation between platelet counts and ExTEM TPI (R2 linear =0.494), ExTEM MaxV (R2 linear =0.253), ExTEM MCE (R2 linear = 0.351) and ExTEM MCF (R2 cubic = 0.498). Fibrinogen levels correlated linearly with ExTEM MCF (R2 linear = 0.426), ExTEM TPI (R2 linear = 0.544), ExTEM MaxV (R2 linear = 0.332), ExTEM MCE (R2 linear = 0.395) and non-linearly with ExTEM CFT (R2 cubic = 0.475)., Conclusion: Fibrinogen levels and platelet counts had an important effect on both standard and derived ROTEM parameters. Further analysis is required in order to determine clinically oriented cut-off values below which severe coagulopathy would develop., Competing Interests: Conflict of interest No conflict of interests to declare. This article did not benefit from any support in the form of grants, equipment or drugs.