Complement profiles in patients with disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC)

1. Clinical studies

Abstract

Complement level was studied in 13 cases of disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) patients associated 4 with severe bacterial infection, 1 with chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) and 8 with liver diseases. Immediately after the onset of DIC, significant falls of CH50, C4 and C3 levels were observed in all cases. By the treatment of DIC mainly with heparin, those cases who failed to be cured maintained their low serum complement levels while those who recovered revealed gradual increase in serum complement.
Although it has not been fully studied whether complement plays a role in the pathogenesis of DIC, the present studied seem to suggest that the investigation of complement, besides coagulation factors and fibrinogen/fibrin degradation product (FDP), might provide clinical value for the early detection of the onset of DIC and for estimating the prognosis of the patients.