Measurement of Fibrinopeptide A in Human Blood
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Abstract
A (FPA) and B from the NH2-terminal end of the fibrinogen molecule, measurement of librinopeptide levels in plasma may provide a direct index of thrombin action. Recently a radioimmunoassay for FPA has been developed, and in the present paper, we describe the application of this assay to the measurement of FPA levels in clinical blood samples. Since fibrinogen cross-reacts with antibodies to FPA, dialysis was used to extract the peptide from plasma. In vitro generation of FPA was prevented by removing the fibrinogen from the plasma by precipitation with ethanol before dialysis. The processing technique permitted recovery of 75 % of FPA added to blood in vitro. Evidence that the immunoreactivity measured in plasma is due to FPA was provided by the results of experiments in which two antisera t