Clinical and Interpretive

Disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) is consumptive coagulopathy in which the normal hemostatic pathways are outpaced by coagulation and fibrinolysis resulting in thrombosis and bleeding and ultimately end-organ damage.

The pathogenesis of DIC involves massive intravascular tissue factor or other procoagulant exposure initiating the hemostatic cascade that exhausts coagulation factors and platelets and causes hemolysis.

Common causes of DIC include sepsis, malignancy, trauma, obstetric complications, and intravascular hemolysis.

Diagnosis of DIC cannot happen in isolation of clinical findings and takes into account a variety of clinical information and laboratory parameters. The DIC panel involves measurement of platelets, d-dimer (fibrin degradation split products), fibrinogen, PT, PTT, assessment of a peripheral smear for schistocytes, and interpretation by a pathologist.