Fibrinogen and von Willebrand factor in IDDM: relationships to lipid vascular risk factors, blood pressure, glycaemic control and urinary albumin excretion rate: the EURODIAB IDDM Complications Study

The interrelationships between fibrinogen, von Willebrand factor, a marker of vascular endothelial cell damage, and serum lipids were explored in well-characterised subjects with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus. The 2091 subjects were enrolled into a cross-sectional, clinic-based study of complications, from 16 European countries: the EURODIAB IDDM Complications study. The anticipated significant relationships between both plasma fibrinogen and plasma von Willebrand factor concentrations and age and glycaemic control, and between fibrinogen and body mass index, were noted. Fibrinogen, adjusted for age and glycated haemoglobin concentration, was also related to smoking habits and was higher in the quartiles with highest systolic and diastolic blood pressures. There was a clustering of vascular risk factors, with a positive relationship between plasma fibrinogen and serum triglyceride concentrations in both genders and between fibrinogen and total cholesterol in males. An inverse relationship between fibrinogen and high density lipoprotein cholesterol was also apparent in males. A prominent feature was a positive relationship between both fibrinogen and von Willebrand factor and albumin excretion rate (p < 0.001 and p < 0.003 respectively) in those with retinopathy but not in those without this complication. In view of previous observations on blood pressure and albuminuria in these subjects the findings are consistent with the hypothesis that microalbuminuria and increased plasma von Willebrand factor are due to endothelial cell perturbation in response to mildly raised blood pressure in subjects with retinopathy. Fibrinogen may also contribute to microvascular disease and its relationships to lipid vascular risk factors suggest a possible pathogenic role in arterial disease in diabetes.