Relationship between level of plasma fibrinogen and carotid atherosclerotic plaques in patients with essential hypertension

ZHENG Xiao-rong; LIN Jin-xiu

doi:10.3969/j.1674-4055.2013.04.013

Abstract：Objective To investigate the relationship between level of plasma fibrinogen (FIB) and carotid atherosclerotic plaques in patients with essential hypertension (EH). Methods EH patients (n=454) were chosen and divided, according to whether or not they had complicated carotid atherosclerotic plaques, into plaque group (n=235) and non-plaque group (n=169). The level of plasma FIB and the properties of plaques (soft plaques, hard plaques and compound plaques) were compared between two groups. The properties of plaques and levels of blood pressure, blood fat, blood sugar and FIB were analyzed by using multi-factor regression. Results ①The levels of FIB and LDL-C were significantly higher in plaque group than that in non-plaque group [FIB:(3.92±2.82) g/L vs. (3.23±1.62) g/L, P=0.032;LDL-C:(3.23±0.91) mmol/L vs. (2.95±0.82) mmol/L, P=0.047], and level of HDL-C was lower in plaque group than that in non-plaque group [(1.17±0.31) mmol/L vs. (1.25±0.35) mmol/L, P=0.021)].②The level of plasma FIB was significantly higher in soft plaque group than that in compound plaque group [(4.18 ±2.89) g/L vs. (3.84±2.16) g/L, P<0.05] and hard plaque group [(4.18±2.89) g/L vs. (3.69±2.21) g/L, P<0.05]. There was no significant difference between compound plaque group and hard plaque group. ③The detection rate of carotid atherosclerotic plaques and proportion of soft plaques were significantly higher in the patients with hyperfibrinogenemia than those with normal FIB level (74.7%vs. 42.9%, P<0.05;32.5%vs. 8.1%, P<0.05). ④The multi-factor regression showed that carotid atherosclerotic plaques were positively correlated to the levels of FIB and LDL-C and negatively to the level of HDL-C. Conclusion The level of plasma FIB is closely related to carotid atherosclerotic plaques, especially to soft plaques in hypertensive patients.