Abstract
The series of investigations was carried out on normal individuals between 18 and 30 years of age. It includes 52 women and 50 men. The sedimentation index was determined by the Cutler method and the fibrin by the Wu colorimetric method, with slight modifications. The fibrin determinations were done in duplicate.
The average sedimentation index for women was 7.635 (mm.) ±.345; the average index for men was 2.380 ± .164. The difference between the 2 sexes is 5.255 ± .382. This difference is 16.3 times as large as its probable error, and is probably significant. The average fibrin content for women was .300 (gm. per 100 cc. plasma) ± .004. For men it was .288 ± .004. The difference between the 2 sexes is .012±.006. Since this difference is only twice as large as its probable error, it cannot be considered certainly significant.
Treatment of the sedimentation indices and the fibrin contents by the statistical method gave a correlation coefficient of .312±.084 for the women. This is 3.83 times as large as its probable error and is probably significant. The empirical mean fibrin values as ordinates are plotted against the sedimentation indices in the graph. While certain of these means, particularly that for the fibrin content of .325 (index 1), deviate rather widely from the regression line, it must be remembered that the total number of cases is 52, and that certain of these means are based on very few analyses.
The correlation coefficient for men was .328±.085, which is 3.86 times as large as its probable error, and is probably significant. The empirical mean fibrin values plotted against the sedimentation indices, and the fitted regression line is shown in the graph.
The difference between the correlation coefficients for the 2 sexes is only .016±.120.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.