The follow list shows some of the possible medical causes of DIC that are listed by the Diseases Database:
Other conditions that might have DIC as a complication may, potentially, be an underlying cause of DIC. Our database lists the following as having DIC as a complication of that condition:
Conditions listing DIC as a symptom may also be potential underlying causes of DIC. Our database lists the following as having DIC as a symptom of that condition:
The following medical news items are relevant to causes of DIC:
As with all medical conditions, there may be many causal factors. Further relevant information on causes of DIC may be found in:
16 MEDICAL BOOKS ONLINE! Review excerpts from medical books online, free, without registration, for more information about the causes of DIC.
DIC may result from:
❑ infection (the most common cause of DIC), including gram-negative or gram-positive septicemia; viral, fungal, or rickettsial infection; and protozoal infection (falciparum malaria)
❑ obstetric complications, such as abruptio placentae, amniotic fluid embolism, and retained dead fetus
❑ neoplastic disease, including acute leukemia and metastatic carcinoma
❑ disorders that produce necrosis, such as extensive burns and trauma, brain tissue destruction, transplant rejection, and hepatic necrosis.
Other causes include heatstroke, shock, poisonous snakebite, cirrhosis, fat embolism, incompatible blood transfusion, cardiac arrest, surgery necessitating cardiopulmonary bypass, giant hemangioma, severe venous thrombosis, and purpura fulminans.
It isn’t clear why such disorders lead to DIC; nor is it certain that they lead to it through a common mechanism. In many patients, the triggering mechanisms may be the entrance of foreign protein into the circulation and vascular endothelial injury.
Regardless of how DIC begins, the typical accelerated clotting results in generalized activation of prothrombin and a consequent excess of thrombin. Excess thrombin converts fibrinogen to fibrin, producing fibrin clots in the microcirculation.
This process consumes exorbitant amounts of coagulation factors (especially fibrinogen, prothrombin, platelets, and factor V and factor VIII), causing hypofibrinogenemia, hypoprothrombinemia, thrombocytopenia, and deficiencies in factor V and factor VIII. Circulating thrombin activates the fibrinolytic system, which lyses fibrin clots into fibrin degradation products.
The hemorrhage that occurs may largely be the result of the anticoagulant activity of fibrin degradation products as well as depletion of plasma coagulation factors.
Source: Handbook of Diseases, 2003
Most common causes are sepsis (particularly Gram-negative), hypotensive shock, and trauma (particularly head trauma).
Source: The 5-Minute Pediatric Consult, 2008
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