Sherin Stephen1, Sreeda R Krishnan2
INTRODUCTION
Coronary artery disease occurs most commonly due to obstruction of the coronary artery by atheromatous plaques. Any intravascular or tissue injury leads to activation of intrinsic or extrinsic pathway which activate coagulation factors and leads to formation of stable fibrin clot. When the balance between clot formation and dissolution is disrupted, thrombosis results. Elevated levels of D-Dimer indicate hyper coagulant activity of thrombin due to activation of coagulation pathways as well as an ongoing thrombotic complication. The present study group consists of 150 patients with coronary artery disease confirmed by angiogram studies and 50 controls without any cardiovascular manifestations. Determination of serum D-Dimer (Latex agglutination method), CK-MB (Immuno inhibition assay), total cholesterol (Modified Roeschlau’s method), triglyceride (Glycerol kinase method), HDL (Precipitation method) were done and LDL levels were calculated. D-Dimer level were found to be highly elevated in the study group with a mean value of 623.19±49.76ng/ml and was statistically significant. So also CK-MB levels showed a mean value of 75.55±53.75IU/L with good statistical significance. The risk factors like hypertension, diabetes, smoking, alcoholism and family history of CAD also had a positive correlation with D-dimer levels. Further, the decrease in HDL levels had more significance than the elevation of LDL levels in the present study. Hence, estimation of D-Dimer levels can be used as an early independent hemostatic marker in predicting the future risk for developing myocardial infarction, especially in the high risk patients after angioplasty.
