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Elevated D-dimer levels occur in a number of clinical situations and are not diagnostic of any specific condition.
Reference range Most sampling kits have 0-300 ng/ml as normal range. Values exceeding 250, 300 or 500 ng/ml (different for various kits) are considered positive. Levels can increase 2-3x with injury, infection or other acute phase reactant.
Increased D-dimer levels correlate with pathologic thrombosis in trauma patients.
Thromboembolism and hemorrhage, as a whole, are the second most common cause of death after infection.
D-Dimer : A fragment produced during the degradation of a clot. The D here stands for domain. Dimer indicates two identical units, in this case two identical domains. D-dimer result from complete breakdown of the clot. Monoclonal antibody to the D-dimer fragment provide the basis for the main methods of detecting it. The presence of D-dimers in the blood is a reliable clue that clotting has begun.
Clotting provides hemostasis, helps to wall off infection, traps leukocytes (in this case in the area of injury and initiates the repair of injured blood vessel walls.
Fundamentally, the host response to invasion or injury is to preserve "self" and to protect against invasion by 'nonself' molecules.
A prolonged prothrombin time and partial thromboplastin time, hypofibrinogenemia, elevated level of fibrin split products, and the presence of the D-dimer herald the onset of disseminated intravascular coagulation.
Neutrophil Count
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Acute bacterial infection (and other infections); Tissue Injury and Inflammation. Myocardial Infarction; Burn injury; Collagen vascular disease ...
www.fpnotebook.com/HEM93.htm - 42k - Cached
Agen Biomedical D-dimer Reference Centre |
Johns Hopkins Microbiology Newsletter - Cached
Oncology Nursing Society.