Difference between Fibrinogen Activity and Fibrinogen Antigen?

[drob31]

I can't seem to find the difference between these two tests. My fibrinogen activity level is normal while my antigen level is high. Antigen seems to be a misnomer since it has nothing to do with an antigen?

 

[Jonathan Edwards]

I can't seem to find the difference between these two tests. My fibrinogen activity level is normal while my antigen level is high. Antigen seems to be a misnomer since it has nothing to do with an antigen?

@drob31 Fibrinogen activity sounds like a measure of how much clot formation occurs when fibrinogen is activated. Fibrinogen does not have activity itself. It is cleaved via the action of thrombin to form fibrin clot. Fibrinogen can be used as an antigen in an ELISA to measure its concentration but that is a strange way of describing it. What are these tests actually called and who offers them? I agree it does not make much sense.

 

[drob31]

Fibrinogen Antigen: https://labtestsonline.org/understanding/analytes/fibrinogen/tab/test/

 

[Jonathan Edwards]

So the lab has two ways of testing how much fibrinogen there is in the blood. The first is an indication of how easily it clots and turns to fibrin. The second is an indication of the actual amount of fibrinogen. The two may not match up exactly because there is a variation in all sort of clotting cofactors within a range of normality.

I doubt either of these tests are of any great interest. I have never personally seen a need to order them. Abnormalities of fibrin without more obvious abnormalities on standard tests like prothrombin time or CRP will be very rare. I think the tests are mostly used to check for exceedingly rare genetic disorders of fibrin or as part of an assessment of diffuse intravascular coagulation in patients on intensive care. I am surprised they have been done to be honest.

 

[heapsreal]

This test was on my recent pathology request form as the immunologist is doing a full work up on me. At a guess maybe because my father had haemochromatosis(i have been ruled out for this previously) as well as other haematological disorders????

 

[lansbergen]

I am surprised they have been done to be honest.

I have reason to believe something is wrong with coagulation. Most likely not the known causes but where else can doctors start looking?

 

[drob31]

So the lab has two ways of testing how much fibrinogen there is in the blood. The first is an indication of how easily it clots and turns to fibrin. The second is an indication of the actual amount of fibrinogen. The two may not match up exactly because there is a variation in all sort of clotting cofactors within a range of normality.

I doubt either of these tests are of any great interest. I have never personally seen a need to order them. Abnormalities of fibrin without more obvious abnormalities on standard tests like prothrombin time or CRP will be very rare. I think the tests are mostly used to check for exceedingly rare genetic disorders of fibrin or as part of an assessment of diffuse intravascular coagulation in patients on intensive care. I am surprised they have been done to be honest.

Fibrinogen was ordered originally to test the hypothesis about antiphosphilipid antibodies causing high levels of fibrinogen.

Then I did the ISAC panel and it was included in that panel as well.

 

[Sushi]

I doubt either of these tests are of any great interest. I have never personally seen a need to order them. Abnormalities of fibrin without more obvious abnormalities on standard tests like prothrombin time or CRP will be very rare.

I am one of those rarities. I was normal on CRP and prothrombin time but very abnormal in fibrin. Dr. David Berg found a correlation with these results and ME/CFS and then designed the ISAC test.

Whatever the basis of the theory, the treatment (injections of low dose heparin) gave me significant symptom improvement and, for the first time in years, allowed phlebotomists to successfully draw blood without 5 sticks. I noticed improvement on heparin in about 2 weeks and continued the injections for 7 months. My doctor at the time, had found that about half of his ME/CFS patients who had similiar ISAC results improved with heparin injections.

 

[aquariusgirl]

same here.... normal crp and prothrombin time... very elevated fibrin or fibrinogen... but my practitioner said I needed enzymes not heparin...

 

[drob31]

same here.... normal crp and prothrombin time... very elevated fibrin or fibrinogen... but my practitioner said I needed enzymes not heparin...

What kind of enzymes did he recommend? I've been using lumbrokinase and bromelain. I avoid nattokinase because it's soy based, and serrapeptase seems weaker.

 

[Michelle]

@Sushi : Did your doctor find he/she had ME/CFS/SEID patients who had history of clotting, i.e. DVT or PE? Just curious as I had bilateral PE 9 years ago. The hemotologist I consulted with could not find an clotting disorder (and he took 7 vials of blood in which to look for one!). Since he couldn't figure out why I had it, and because I'd had DVT & PE following surgery on my knee and ankle 7 years earlier, he recommended life-long anticoagulation (have been on warfarin since). I think I've only seen one other ME/SEID patient online who has also had problems with clotting in the thousands of comments/posts I've read over the last 13 years (I don't comment often here or elsewhere, but I do lurk. A lot.).

How long did your improvement with lovenox last after you stopped treatment?

 

[Sushi]

@Sushi : Did your doctor find he/she had ME/CFS/SEID patients who had history of clotting, i.e. DVT or PE?

We never discussed DVTs or PEs--only the type of clotting problems that the ISAC panel was designed to show. It is pretty common to find these type clotting problems in ME/CFS patients.

I think I've only seen one other ME/SEID patient online who has also had problems with clotting in the thousands of comments/posts I've read over the last 13 years (I don't comment often here or elsewhere, but I do lurk. A lot.).

I believe that there are quite a number of threads on it here. Try Google Site Search.

How long did your improvement with lovenox last after you stopped treatment?

I have continued with some form of blood thinning treatment, and have done so many other treatments since I took heparin (many years ago) that I really couldn't say.