Objective--To get a better insight into the role of hemostasis in coronary artery disease (CAD), we assessed the impact of von Willebrand factor (vWF), fibrinogen, thrombin-antithrombin (TAT) complexes, D-dimers, and plasmin-antiplasmin (PAP) complexes on the risk of cardiovascular event in a prospective cohort of CAD patients.

Methods and Results--The prospective Atherogene cohort includes 1057 individuals with an angiographically proven coronary artery disease at baseline. After a median follow-up of 6.6 years, 135 individuals died from a cardiovascular cause and 97 had a nonfatal cardiovascular event. Higher levels of all 5 hemostatic markers at baseline were associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular death, but not of nonfatal event. Except for vWF, these associations remained significant after adjustment for conventional cardiovascular risk factors and C-reactive protein (CRP) levels (P for trend according to increasing tertiles=0.20, 0.011, 0.026, 0.019, and 0.01 for vWF, fibrinogen, TAT, D-Dimer, and PAP, respectively). When including the 5 hemostatic markers in a stepwise Cox regression analysis where conventional risk factors and CRP were forced into the model, fibrinogen and D-dimers remained independently associated with the risk of cardiovascular death. Adjusted hazard ratios (95% CI) associated with one SD increase of fibrinogen and D-dimers were 1.27 (1.04 to 1.55) and 1.29 (1.09 to 1.53), respectively.

Conclusions--In patients with coronary artery disease, fibrinogen and D-dimer levels are independent predictors of subsequent cardiovascular death. Our data support a role of impaired coagulation/fibrinolysis process in the complications of coronary artery disease.