Associations between homocysteine and coagulation factors - A cross-sectional study in two populations of central Europe

Plasma homocysteine has been associated with vascular disease and mortality. Experimental studies and studies on patients with vascular disease have indicated a thrombogenic potential of raised homocysteine levels. Studies on community samples are rare. We investigated the associations between homocysteine levels and selected coagulation factors in population-based random samples of 187 men from Pardubice (Czech Republic) and 147 men from Augsburg (Germany), aged 45 to 64 years. Czech men had higher mean levels of plasma homocysteine (10.3 vs. 8.9 mu mol/1, P < .001) and of fibrinogen, von Willebrand factor (vWF), prothrombin fragment 1 + 2 (F 1 + 2) and D-Dimer (each P < .05). Plasma homocysteine was positively correlated with fibrinogen (r = .34) and vWF (r = .23, each P < .001) only in Czechs, and with D-Dimer in both Czechs and Germans (r = .26 and .21, respectively). Formal testing for interaction regarding the intercountry differences in the relationship with homocysteine revealed significance only for fibrinogen (P < .01). In multivariate analyses, the association of homocysteine with D-Dimer remained statistically significant after adjustment for indicators of chronic inflammation and fibrinogen. No significant correlation was found with Factor VII (F VII) activity or F 1 + 2. Homocysteine levels were also unrelated to traditional risk factors. In conclusion, in these cross-sectional studies we found moderate to strong associations between homocysteine and components of the endogenous hemostatic and fibrinolytic systems. The associations were slightly different between Czech and German men. These findings may help to better understand the role of homocysteine in atherothrombotic diseases. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.