Original Article OPEN ACCESS
Whole blood viscosity assessment
issues II: prevalence in endothelial dysfunction and hypercoagulation
Ezekiel Uba Nwose
Western Pathology Cluster – NSW
HealthSouth West Pathology Service,
590 Smollett Street Albury,
NSW 2640,
Citation:
Nwose EU. Whole blood
viscosity assessment issues II: prevalence in endothelial dysfunction and
hypercoagulation.
North Am
J Med Sci
2010; 2: 252-257.
Doi:
10.4297/najms.2010.2252
Availability:
www.najms.org
ISSN:
1947 – 2714
Abstract
Background:
Virchow’s triad in cardiovascular disease comprises blood viscosity, plasma
D-dimer and homocysteine as indices of three associated but separate vascular
phenomena.
Aims:
This work investigates prevalence of hyperviscosity in
hyperhomocysteinaemia and positive D-dimer; and differences or similarities in
stasis status among sub-populations of hyperhomocysteinaemia vs.
normohomocysteinaemia and negative vs. positive D-dimer.
Patients and Methods: 10-years
de-identified archived clinical pathology data for the period of January 1999 to
December 2008 were audited. All cases tested for D-dimer (n=6845) and
homocysteine (n=1665), which were concomitantly tested for haematocrit and total
proteins, were extracted. Results:
The results show a very low prevalence of hyperviscosity associated with a
positive D-dimer sub-population (1.48%), which is not statistically different in
comparison with the negative D-dimer sub-population. The prevalence of
hyperviscosity associated with hyperhomocysteinaemia (5.04%) was statistically
significantly higher in comparison to the normohomocysteinaemia sub-population
(p = 0.05). The prevalence of low viscosity is significantly higher in the
positive D-dimer sub-population relative to the negative D-dimer sub-population
(p < 0.00001), but not different
between hyperhomocysteinaemia vs. normohomocysteinaemia.
Normoviscosity is statistically significantly commoner in normoviscosity
relative to hyper-homocysteinaemia as well as in negative compared with positive
D-dimer (p < 0.00001).
Conclusion:
The findings reported here suggest putting into perspective the specificity of
whole blood viscosity relative to stasis, not necessarily sensitivity to disease
conditions where it is implicated.
Keywords:
Cardiovascular complications, clinical laboratory evaluation, D-dimer,
homocysteine, stasis, Virchow’s triad, whole blood viscosity.
Correspondence to:
Western Pathology Cluster –
NSW Health, South West Pathology Service;