Fibrinogen — proteolysis in acute myelogenous leukemia (AML)

Summary Fibrinopeptides were measured as direct indices of thrombin, plasmin and elastase in plasma samples obtained from patients with AML. Peptide patterns observed were consistent with spontaneous or drug induced plasmin-specific fibrinogenolysis (AML FAB M 1/3), elastase mediated proteolysis (AML FAB M 3/4) or DIC (AML FAB M 4/5). DIC was also observed in septic, agranulocytotic patients.Presented in part at the XX Congress of the International Society of Hematology, September 1–7, 1984, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Supported by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (grant Ec 58-3/2)This paper is dedicated to the memory of Dr. H. L. Nossel, who most generously supplied reagents for this studyThe doctoral thesis of Michael Koch is partly presented in this work