Can physical exercise induce an effective fibrinolysis?

The study examined serum fibrin(ogen) degradation products (FDP/fdp) after short and prolonged exercise, before and after training, in young and elderly subjects. Six of 15 well-trained soccer players demonstrated an increase of FDP/fdp after a short graded maximal treadmill test. In 12 elderly subjects short maximal exercise produced no increase of FDP/fdp. However, in most of these subjects an exhaustive work load was not reached. Three of 16 moderately trained young subjects exhibited a small FDP/fdp increase after 45 minutes of submaximal exercise and in 3 of 10 participants an elevation of FDP/fdp was found after a 3 h-running test. Immediately after the race there was a significant (p less than 0.001) increase of fragment D, measured by an enzyme immunoassay. During a second 3 h-race after an 8 week physical training program, the post-exercise FDP/fdp and fragment D increase was slightly enhanced. Plasma fibrinogen was significantly (p less than 0.05) elevated on the fourth day after the 3 h-race before but not after the training program. In conclusion intense and/or prolonged physical exercise caused only a modest increase of FDP/fdp. Physical training seems only minimally to affect this response. It is speculated that in the trained subject, daily exercise-induced fibrinolytic activation might be more relevant to the risk of thrombotic or atherosclerotic disease than a higher absolute resting or post-exercise fibrinolytic level compared with the untrained.