Fibrinogen is a protein that is responsible for the clotting of blood. Fibrinogen helps in forming blood clots, and is manufactured by the liver. Through a blood test, you can know the total amount of fibrinogen in your blood. Fibrinogen is recommmended with other tests. It helps in determining body's capacity to form and decompose blood clots. This test is often recommended in the diagnosis of an irregular Prothrombin Time (PT) or Partial Prothrombin Time (PTT). In addition, the fibrinogen test also determines the cause of prolonged bleeding.

Sometimes, fibrinogen test is used to monitor the status of a progressive disease, such as liver disease and also to monitor the treatment of an acquired condition, such as disseminates intravascular coagulation (DIC).

Other than this, fibrinogen test is used with other cardiac risk markers, such as C-Reactive Protein (CRP), to determine the risk factor of a person to develop cardiovascular disease. However, fibrinogen is less popular but, doctors feel that fibrinogen test findings provide them with some extra information, which can help them a lot to handle the probable risk factors related to cholesterol and HDL.

The fibrinogen test is highly recommended for a patient with a prolonged bleeding and abnormal PT and PTT test values. It is highly useful in cases where doctors suspect that a person may have a hereditary deficiency or dysfunction. It is also useful in cases where the doctor wants to assess and monitor the clotting ability of a patient suffering from an acquired bleeding disorder.