The contact phase of blood coagulation in diabetes mellitus and in patients with vasculopathy.
The contact phase has been studied in diabetics and patients with macroangiopathy. Factor XII and high molecular weight kininogen (HMWK) are normal. C1-inhibitor and also alpha 2-macroglobulin are significantly elevated in diabetics with complications, for alpha 2-macroglobulin especially in patients with nephropathy, 137.5% +/- 36.0 (p less than 0.001). C1-inhibitor is also increased in vasculopathy without diabetes 113.2 +/- 22.1 (p less than 0.01). Prekallikrein (PK) is increased in all patients' groups (Table 2) as compared to normals. PK is particularly high (134% +/- 32) in 5 diabetics without macroangiopathy but with sensomotor neuropathy. This difference is remarkable because of the older age of diabetics and the negative correlation of PK with age in normals.