ORIGINAL ARTICLES   

International Angiology 2000 December;19(4):314-8

Copyright © 2001 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

lingua: Inglese

The prevalence of Factor V Leiden as a risk factor for venous thromboembolism in the population of North-Western Greece

Ioannou H. V., Mitsis M., Eleftheriou A., Matsagas M., Nousias V., Rigopoulos C., Vartholomatos G., Kappas A. M.

From the Department of Surgery and * Haematology Laboratory, University Hospital of Ioannina, Ioannina, Greece

Background. Many pre­dis­pos­ing fac­tors ­have ­been asso­ciat­ed ­with ­the devel­op­ment of ­venous throm­boem­bo­lism. Recently, Factor V Leiden ­has ­been ­described as a com­mon genet­ic ­risk fac­tor. The geo­graph­ic dis­tri­bu­tion of ­this genet­ic abnor­mal­ity in ­the gen­er­al pop­u­la­tion great­ly var­ies. The prev­a­lence of ­the Factor V Leiden muta­tion in Europe is ­high, par­tic­u­lar­ly in Greece, ­where accord­ing to ­some ­authors it is espe­cial­ly ­high. The pur­pose of ­this ­study ­was to esti­mate ­the prev­a­lence of ­the Factor V Leiden muta­tion in ­patients pre­sent­ing ­with at ­least ­one epi­sode of ­venous throm­boem­bo­lism ­and to com­pare it ­with ­that of ­the gen­er­al pop­u­la­tion.
Methods. Blood sam­ples ­were ­drawn ­from 388 sub­jects. 240 ­healthy ­blood ­donors (con­trols) ­and 148 unse­lect­ed ­patients ­with a his­to­ry of ­one or ­more epi­sodes of ­venous throm­bo­sis. ­DNA anal­y­sis ­was per­formed ­using ­the poly­me­rase ­chain reac­tion to ampli­fy ­the fac­tor V ­gene ­exon 10, ­and to ­detect ­the Factor V Leiden ­point muta­tion.
Results. ­DNA anal­y­sis ­revealed Factor V Leiden muta­tions in ­eight (3.3%) con­trol sub­jects (sev­en het­er­o­zy­gous ­and ­one homo­zy­gous) ­and in twen­ty-­four (16.2%) ­patients, (twen­ty-­two het­er­o­zy­gous ­and ­two homo­zy­gous). The dif­fer­ence ­between ­the ­two ­groups is sta­tis­ti­cal­ly sig­nif­i­cant (p<0.0001; χ2 ­test).
Conclusions. The prev­a­lence of ­the Factor V Leiden muta­tion in ­the gen­er­al pop­u­la­tion of North-Western Greece is 3.3%, ­which is with­in ­the ­same ­range as ­that report­ed ­for oth­er European coun­tries. The Factor V Leiden muta­tion is ­one of ­the ­most impor­tant pre­dis­pos­ing genet­ic fac­tors in ­the devel­op­ment of ­venous throm­bo­sis ­and ­was ­present in 16.2% of ­our ­patients.