DOI: 10.36347/sjams.2016.v04i07.073

Pages: 2649-2652

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a multicomponent condition characterised by airflow obstruction that is not fully reversible. It is a major global cause of morbidity and mortality. The most widely used marker of disease severity and progression is FEV1. However, FEV1 correlates poorly with both symptoms and other measures of disease progression and thus there is a need for other biological markers to better characterize individuals with COPD. Fibrinogen is an acute phase plasma protein that has emerged as a promising biomarker in COPD. Hence the current study linking fibrinogen with COPD has been carried out to establish its potential utility as a biomarker. 55 stable COPD patients in the age group 35-70 years were recruited in this study based on spirometry and 37 age and sex matched subjects were included as controls. Apart from the baseline biochemical analysis, plasma fibrinogen estimation was done in the study population. Results were analysed using SPSS software. Clinical characteristics like age, gender, smoking, biomass exposure, FEV1 % predicted and FEV1/FVC ratio were compared between controls and patients with COPD. Student’s unpaired t test was used to compare fibrinogen levels in cases and controls. ANOVA was used to compare the fibrinogen values in various stages of COPD subjects. The plasma fibrinogen levels in patients with COPD were significantly higher than in controls.