Fibrinogen

What this test is

Fibrinogen is a protein your body uses to form blood clots. It is sometimes checked along with cholesterol to look for extra heart risk. Large studies show it only slightly improves how well we predict your risk. Blood pressure and cholesterol already tell us most of what we need. Because of this, no major heart guideline found in this review recommends checking fibrinogen for that reason. Fibrinogen also rises with infections, inflammation, smoking, and pregnancy. So a high result is hard to read when there is no clear question behind it. Fibrinogen is a useful test in other cases, like bleeding or clotting problems. That is a different question than checking it for heart risk.