Hereditary thrombophilia risk factors in patients with venous thromboembolism

INTRODUCTION: Venous thromboembolic disease (VTD) is a serious cause of mortality and morbidity with an incidence of 0.1% per year. The etiology of VTD is multifactorial and associated with acquired and hereditary conditions. The aim of our study was to investigate the presence of rare genetic mutations in VTD patients and to evaluate their distribution according to thrombosis sites.
METHODS: The study group consisted of 107 patients who underwent genetic testing for thrombophilia due to VTD between 2015 and 2017. Patients with VTD who underwent thrombophilic genetic examination by polymerase chain reaction method were included in the study. Antithrombin III, protein C and protein S deficiency patients diagnosed with biochemical tests were excluded from the study. The demographic characteristics and clinical results of the patients were obtained from the hospital archive. The control group consisted of 112 healthy individuals randomly selected from the community. The patient group and the control group were compared.
RESULTS: The mean age of the patients was 39.6 years. The female/male ratio was 1.7. Advanced age and female gender were statistically significantly more frequent in the patient group (In both, p=0.0001). Factor V G1691A and B-Fibrinogen-455 genetic defects were statistically significantly higher in the patient group (Respectively; p=0.008, p=0.049). The most frequent (54.2%) PAI-4G&5G heterozygous gene defect was found in the patients. Deep venous thrombosis was detected in 54.2%, intraabdominal VTD in 4.7%, pulmonary embolism in 27.1%, and cerebral venous thrombosis in 30.8% of the VTD patients.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: Thrombophilic genetic mutations are not uncommon in patients with VTD. Thrombophilic genetic mutations in VTD etiology and in selected patients should be investigated. In patients without known thrombophilia mutations, rare thrombophilic mutations should be examined.