Fibrinogen destruction in the cadaver: Effects of antemortem stress and inhibitors

¹ Carter Physiology Laboratory and Department of Biochemistry, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas

The blood of healthy, well-fed dogs remained completely fluid following hypoxic death. Clots were not observed for several hours after death and fibrinogen levels fell gradually. Injections of heparin or antifibrinolysin into unstressed dogs just before death impeded the disappearance of fibrinogen. In dogs from the same group which had been exposed to a mild stress a solid coagulum formed in the heart and major blood vessels soon after death. Prothrombin activity and fibrinogen concentration increased and accelerator globulin levels fell during the stress period. The results indicate that postmortem loss of fibrinogen in the dog is a normal occurrence in the unstressed animal and that a stress involving little or no tissue trauma may cause a postmortem coagulation of the blood. Results of experiments involving antemortem injections of heparin or antifibrinolysin indicate that both the fibrinolytic and coagulation systems must be intact if destruction of fibrinogen is to proceed in the cadaver.

Key Words: postmortem changes • effects of stress • fibrinolysis • effects of exogenous heparin • effects of exogenous antifibrinolysin

Submitted on October 5, 1964