[The behaviour of fibrinogen and fibrinogen degradation products in myocardial infarction. Justification of a prognostic index (author's transl)].

The behaviour of fibrinogen and fibrinogen degradation products in 52 patients with myocardial infarction was analyzed with the aim of finding an evolutive prognostic index for these patients. According to the clinical course the patients who developed complications were separated from those who did not develop them; a special distinction was made of those complications classified as being of thromboembolic type. In the same way those patients who died were analyzed differentially from those who did not. When these facts were related to the behaviour of fibrinogen and of fibrinogen degradation products the following facts were observed: 1) There was an increase of fibrinogen which reached its maximum on the 5th and 6th days and which returned to normal limits on approximately the 9th day. The greatest increase was reached in those patients who developed thromboembolic complications, although the study did not allow to establish significant differences between this group and the rest of the cases. A reactive and nonspecific behaviour was suggested. 2) Fibrinogen degradation productes reached its maximum increase during the 48 hours after the myocardial infarction, without significant differences between both groups. Therefore it does not seem that a prognostic and evolutive assessment can be derived from the study of the changes in the fibrinogen time and fibrinogen degradation products in patients with myocardial infarction.