Fibrinolysis in diabetes mellitus. Role of overweight and hypertriglyceridemia.

The variations of dilute blood clot lysis time (DBCLT) in 103 diabetic patients were investigated in terms of insulin dependency, body weight, serum lipids and presence of diabetic vascular diseases. The results showed that DBCLT was significantly longer in the 34 overweight diabetic patients (437 +/- 68 min) than in the 69 diabetics at or below the ideal body weight (240 +/- 28 min) or in the 76 normalipidemic normal weight control subjects (253 +/- 12 min). DBCLT was also longer in the hypertrigliceridemic diabetic patients than in the normolipidemic ones. The mean lysis time was similar in diabetic patients with and without retinopathy. However, a higher level of fibrinolytic inhibitors was found in patients with diabetic small vessel disease. In vitro inhibition of plasma factor XIII by p-chlormercuribenzoate (PCMB) caused an acceleration of DBCLT and the differences between lysis time in the overweight diabetics and in the controls were attenuated. These results suggested that deficient thrombolysis is rather due to overweight and to disturbances of lipid metabolism than to diabets and/or its vascular complications and that enhanced fibrin crosslinking is at least partially responsible for delayed clot lysis.