Objectives: To investigate the prognostic value of plasma fibrinogen level amongst middle-aged survivors of myocardial infarction (MI).
Design: Prospective cohort study.
Settings: Determination of fibrinogen and other prognostic variables in MI patients recruited in a presumably stable phase of coronary heart disease (CHD).
Subjects: A total of 247 middle-aged CHD patients (54 women and 193 men) who had their first MI at age < or = 60 (women) or < or = 55 (men) were recruited at least 3 months after (mean 2.1 years) the most recent MI.
Main outcome measures: The primary endpoint was total mortality, and the secondary endpoint was cardiac deaths. The tertiary endpoint was major cardiac events (cardiac death, MI and cardiac arrest).
Results: During a follow-up period of 10 years a total of 44 patients had died, 36 from cardiac causes. Major cardiac event occurred in 70 patients. After adjusting for age, ejection fraction (EF), total serum cholesterol (TC), smoking and hypertension, patients in the top quartile of fibrinogen (> or = 4.0 g L-1) had a relative risk (RR) of 1.8 (95% CI 1.0-3.6) (P = 0.07) for death of all causes. The top quartile of fibrinogen was a stronger predictor of cardiac death; RR = 2.2 (95% CI 1.1-4.4) (P = 0.03), whilst the effect on the endpoint major cardiac event was not significant; RR=1.1 (95% CI 0.6-1.9) (P = 0.69).
Conclusions: A plasma fibrinogen level in the top quartile predicted cardiac death in middle-aged patients who had suffered MI.