|  | Conditions Treatments | Diseases

What Does a D-Dimer Level of 166 Mean?

A functional cardiovascular system must circulate blood at all times. To supply tissues with oxygen and nutrients, as well as remove carbon dioxide and wastes, blood cannot become stagnant and must maintain its flow throughout the body. Thrombosis, or clot formation, is a serious medical problem that can lead to significant tissue damage in a short time. D-dimer levels are a useful laboratory test commonly ordered by physicians to assess a patient's risk of clot formation.

  1. D-Dimer Significance

    • Blood clots are highly dynamic structures. Far from being a permanent fixture, clots are temporary plugs designed to quickly form but remain transient enough to breakdown after serving their purpose. When a clot forms in your veins, a molecule known as fibrin, provides the structural framework within which the clot is built. To maintain proper blood flow, these clots are degraded through a process known as fibrinolysis, or fragmentation of the fibrin mesh. D-dimers are the degradation products released in this process. Physicians can use D-dimer levels to assess whether or not clot formation and breakdown is occurring throughout the body.

    D-Dimer levels

    • According to a 2003 article from the "New England Journal of Medicine," a D-dimer level of less than 200 micrograms/liter is considered within normal limits. The study concluded that this test had a negative predictive value of 96.1 percent, meaning that, for those patients who had a D-dimer level lower than 200 nanograms/liter (ug/L,) 96.1 percent of them were ultimately determined to not have a thrombus when evaluated with other methods. The study concluded that ruling out patients with a D-dimer level of less than 200 ug/L is a viable diagnostic strategy.

    D-Dimer Applications

    • Physicians are always looking for better ways to rule in or rule out diagnoses; D-dimers are well-established indicators of vessel thrombosis. Conditions, such as pulmonary embolism, heart attack, stroke, deep vein thrombosis, and intestinal ischemia, are all associated with improper clotting, leading to vessel obstruction and tissue death; these are the emergency conditions your Doctor is trying to rule out when measuring D-dimers. In some cases, a slightly elevated D-dimer level of 166 may indicate a hypercoagulable condition, as is seen in some inherited or acquired conditions, such as cancer. Therefore, while a D-dimer level of 166 does not strongly indicate thrombus, the underlying cause of hypercoagulability should be further investigated by your physician.

Diseases - Related Articles