New method for determining thrombin-clottable fibrinogen.

We describe a new method for determination of thrombin-clottable fibrinogen, which eliminates the systematic error caused by occlusion of other serum proteins in the fibrin clot and reduces the sensitivity to high concentrations of fibrin degradation products. Essentially, the method consists of densitometric quantitation of the fibrin band after a standard electrophoresis run of plasma, thrombin fixation of the fibrinogen, and removal of the non-clotted proteins by washing in saline. The procedure shows good precision and gives results that are accurate, significantly correlate with results for the classical thrombin clotting method (r = 0.92, P less than .001), and are not affected by fibrin degradation product concentrations up to 900 mg/liter. These characteristics make the method especially valuable in establishing fibrogen concentration in patients who are undergoing thrombolytic therapy.