Fibrinogen

Fibrinogen is a protein that helps your blood clot. That's a good thing unless, as too often happens, you end up with too much of a good thing. Excessive generation of fibrin makes blood thick and sticky - just what your arteries don't need. This can lead to thrombosis, formation of a blood clot (thrombus) inside a blood vessel, obstructing the flow of blood through the circulatory system.

Cancer incidence also increased as levels of fibrinogen go up. Fibrinogen is a precursor to fibrin, a protein which becomes part of the "coat or covering" that cancer cells often produce to "hide" from the immune system.

As with most cardiac risk factors, the effects of fibrinogen are influenced by other factors as well. The test is very useful in people who have any of the common cardiac risk factors. These factors make them more prone to plaque formation. Smoking rises fibrinogen significantly. Younger females taking the birth-control pill should also be tested, as well as older women, because fibrinogen rises as estrogens declines.

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